306 
Breeding Experi7nents with Foxgloves 
affected, and after the peloric flower has withered it continues to grow through 
the centre of the crown and may produce a considerable number of zygomorphic 
flowers. On this out-growing axis a second and subsequently even a third peloric 
or crown flower may be produced. These are always less perfect than the first. 
In other plants the peloric flower is permanently the teriuinal flower, and the 
main axis ends in ovary and pistil. 
In plant A the peloric flower consisted of four fused flowers, in plant G (1) 
of about eight flowers, and in both cases the main axis continued to grow on the 
withering of the crown. In iV (1) the peloric flower was a regular deep cup consisting 
of only three fused flowers and the main axis terminated in an ovary. 
In the case of side flower-shoots the axis seldom continues to grow, but 
generally terminates in a pistil. In plant A the terminal flower of the side shoot 
consisted of only two flowers which had fused laterally and the resulting structure 
was bilaterally symmetrical. In plant C* (1) the side shoots terminated in a 
beautifully regular shallow cup consisting of three fused flowers. 
In connection with the formation of the crown flower it is clear from the arrange- 
ment of the stamens, and the lobing and spotting of the corolla, that the structure 
arises as if the flowers had split along the middle line of the upper surface, spread 
out and fused with their neighbours along the split edges. 
As an abnormality there occasionally occurred among the plants zygomorphic 
flowers completely split along the upper surface ; they were otherwise quite normal 
flowers. Sometimes where split the edges gaped apart, and thus there is a 
tendency for the flowers to arise in a flat, leaf-like condition. 
It may be supposed in fact that the complete suppression of certain inter- 
nodes causes a definite number of flower-buds to fuse together in such a manner 
that when growth occurs the resulting structure has the appearance of being 
produced by the joining together of several zygomorphic flowers which have been 
cut open along the middle line of the upper surface and have been connected 
together to form a cup or shallow saucer. 
It was soon found that imperfect crowns of different degrees of incompleteness 
could occur, and this fact raised the presumption that in the cross of a crowned 
plant and an ordinary plant the offspring would exhibit more or less intermediate 
characters. 
It seemed quite hopeless to attempt to find a natural scale by means of which 
the intensity of the peloric character in different plants could be measured, and the 
following empirical grading was adopted. 
(1) Plants in which the main axis carried a perfect crown of a variable number 
of flowers (3, 4, 8) was placed in the 100 % grade. On some few plants the corolla 
of the crown flowers was quite small and green, or even entirely absent, but the 
arrangement of the sepals indicated clearly that the peloric character was fully 
developed; such plants were also placed under the 100 % grade. 
