51 
MORPHOLOGICAL PECULIARITIES OP LINARIA 
SPURIA. 
BY E. S. MAGRATH. 
K>* 
T he anomalous forms wMcIl plants^ or portions of them^ 
sometimes assnme_, are a subject of exceeding interest 
to most students of botanical physiology. It is difficult if not 
impossible^ in very many cases to trace these abnormal de- 
velopments to any definite cause ; and yet an attentive 
examination of them may sometimes throw much light on 
investigations into the morphological structure of plants. 
Having lately met with a case which illustrates^ in a very 
curious manner^ the tendency of irregular flowers to become 
regular_, it has occurred to me that a brief notice of it might 
not be wholly without interest for the readers of the Popular 
Science Review. 
While on a botanical ramble in the neighbourhood of 
Henley- on-Thames_, early in September I came upon a sandy 
corn-field which Nature seemed to have intended as a con- 
genial habitat for most of the species of Linaria. 
The showy L. commiinis displayed its not ungraceful 
flowers on the border of the fields while the rare L. repens 
peeped from the hedge-row_, into which it had crept from the 
neighbouring pasture^ where its pale blue petals_, striped with 
violet rose everywhere above the grass. In the cultivated 
ground from which the crop had just been removed^ the 
erect^ quaint-looking L. minor, and the graceful L. elatine 
with its hastate leaves and trailing sterns^ were everywhere 
abundant. Passing by these with the recognition due to 
familiar friends, I proceeded to search for specimens of L. 
sjpuria, which I had reason to believe might be met with in 
this favourite abode of the genus. Nor was I disappointed, 
as it grew plentifully among the stubble. The first plant I 
came upon was in seed. In taking it up, I observed a 
singularly curious-looking blossom lying on the ground near 
the flower which I had just gathered. It consisted of a 
regular monopetalous salver-shaped corolla, very much 
resembling that of Primula veris, except that the tube was 
rather longer, less cylindrical, and more contracted towards 
the limb. The limb itself, which vms much smaller than that 
•of the cowslip, consisted of five regular lobes, marked on the 
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