METAMORPHOSIS. 133 



division of the normal one, the products belonging to 

 the posterior half of each lateral sepal. Bnchenau 

 described 3-spurred flowers (fig. 116). In the vast 

 majority of cases he observed that the presence of 

 extra spurs was correlated with the complete absence 

 of a bract. In some cases the extra spur or spurs were 

 turned inside out and solid. In a 4-merous flower, in 

 which the sepals were diagonally placed, he found the 

 single spur placed opposite the posterior petal. Such 

 anomalous positions for the spurs as he repeatedly 



116 117 



Fig. 116. — Tropieolum maJHS (Indian Cre.?s). Flower with tliree spurs 



(sp) opposite the petals (p) ; i, sepals. 



Fig. 117. — Tropsenlum majus. Peloric flower; no spur present. 



Diagrams. (After Bucheuau.) 



describes in his paper, as in the last-mentioned case 

 and the one seen by the present writer, may probably 

 be accounted for by the fact that the three posterior 

 sepals completely dominate that region of the flower ; 

 the posterior portion of what appears to be the 

 receptacle really represents the fused basal portion of 

 the three sepals, and its coloration is the same ; and as 

 the insertion of the posterior petals is a very slender 

 one the basal spur-bearing portion of the calyx may 

 actually overlap the petal-insertion, as would seem to 

 be the case in Buchenau's 4-merous flower. Such a 

 condition of affairs would fully explain the abnormal 

 position of the spurs. In any case the view held by 

 Bucheuau, Dammer, and others, that the spur reprc- 



