METAMORPHOSIS. 



159 



which exhibited the interesting transformations in the 

 corona, which is thus changing back to its original, 

 primitive condition, viz., of basal anther-lobes. 



Celakovsky's view of corona-morphology becomes 

 thus doubly supported, viz., by the occurrence of 

 transformations of one and the same organ which are 

 taking place in both directions : progressively and 

 retrogressively. 



There is one further point of importance to be 

 noted. In the change which is under way, whereby 

 the three petals become partially transformed into 

 stamens, the entire corona of the flower becomes 

 involved, the sepals being left without any, from which 

 it might be reasonably deduced that in Narcissus the 

 normal corona is an outgrowth of the corolla only, and 

 that the sepals, although equally derived from stamens 

 possessing versatile anthers, no longer possess, if they 

 ever did, any structure corresponding to the basal 

 lobes of the anther. The corolla-lobes of other genera 

 of Amarylliclacese, although derived by transformation 

 of versatile anthers, are also devoid of any trace of a 

 ligular outgrowth. On the other hand Celakovsky, 

 from a study of abnormal flowers of N. Tazetta, found 

 that the calyx possessed a corona as well as the corolla ; 

 but that in some of the double flowers, in which the 

 stamens produced corona-structures, that of the calyx 

 was either greatly reduced or entirely suppressed. 

 Hence it would be best, on the whole, to regard the 

 calyx-corona in the flowers of N. Pseudo-narcissus 

 var. above described as having also become suppressed 

 owing to the changes undergone by the corolla. In 

 the flower sent by the 6 Gardeners' Chronicle,' how- 

 ever, each of the six perianth-segments had its bilobed 

 corona-segment. 



In a flower of an Odontoglossum, reduced in size from 

 the normal, sent from the Royal Horticultural Society's 

 Gardens at Wisley, the three petals were changed into 

 stamens, although these still remained partly petaloid 

 and the labellum could be distinguished by its yellow 



