THE SHAPES OF FLOWERS. 



151 



in their attitudes, are in their more conspicuous characters 

 radial : though there is a certain bilateralness in the calyx, 

 the five petals are symmetrically disposed all round. B. 

 Wagneriana furnishes two forms of flowers : on the same in- 

 dividual plant may be found radial flowers like Fig. 242, and 

 others like Fig. 243 that are merging into the bilateral. 

 More decided is the bilateralness in B. albo-coccinea, Fig. 244 ; 

 and still more in B. nitida, Fig. 245. While in B.jatrophoe- 



folia, Fig. 246, the change reaches its extreme by the dis- 

 appearance of the lateral petals. On examining the modes of 

 growth in these several species, they will be seen to explain 

 these changes in the manner alleged. Even 



more conclusive are the nearly-allied transformations occur- 

 ring in artificially-produced varieties of the same species. 

 Gloxinia may be named in illustration. In Fig. 247 is repre- 

 sented one of the ordinary forms, which shows us bilateralness of 

 shape along with a mode of growth that renders the conditions 

 alike on the two sides while different above and below. But 

 in G. erecta, Fig. 248, we 

 have the flower assuming an 

 upright attitude, and at the 

 same time assuming the radial 

 type. This is not to be inter- 

 preted as a production of ra- 

 dial symmetry out of bilateral symmetry, under the action of 

 the appropriate conditions. It is rather to be taken as a case 

 of what is termed "peloria" — a reversion to the primitive 

 radial type, from which the bilateral modification had been 

 derived. The significant inference to be drawn from it is, 

 that this primitive radial type had an upright attitude ; and 



