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VEGETABLE TERATOLOGY. — ABNORMAL CALCEOLARIAS. 
a flute, where it split in two oval openings. The corolla, when opened, presented no trace of stamens, 
only the pistil of regular form was placed at its hase, and had its style curved to one side. The colour 
is not less remarkable : on the ordinary flowers of this variety of Calceolaria, the base is straw-colour, 
and there is a red tinge visible at the inside, the internal cuticle being coloured red ; the inferior lip 
is coloured with light red, but here it is the outer skin that is coloured. Now, in this monstrosity 
the base of the corolla presented at first a yellow zone ; then a broad red band in the interior, pro- 
ceeding from the coloured part of the internal skin ; then came a zone of pure yellow, and at the con- 
tracted part the outer skin was coloured with 
red ; and at last the small narrow terminal 
beak was of a rich yellow. 
The base of the bottle-shaped corolla, it 
therefore appears, represented the throat of the 
two-lipped normal corolla, and the conical end 
represented the inferior lip. The hypertrophy 
of the bottle-shaped corolla is evidently ex- 
plained by the resorption of all the male 
organs. In the peloria of Guillemin, which 
only measured about half-an-ineh, there was, 
however, also a complete absence of stamens. 
Is this absence the condition of the regularity 
of arrangement of the bilabiate flower of 
calceolarias ? The three cases noticed would 
seem to establish this view. According to 
this state of things, this pelorisation would 
seem to be a disposition of parts in a regular 
form ; for the Calceolaria, having the flower 
bilabiate and slippered, is irregular, and the 
bottle-shaped peloria is a regular form, with 
the exception of its extreme beak. Yet, if 
properly considered, the pelorisation is not a 
regular disposition of parts. Such an ar- 
rangement of a Calceolaria would consist of a 
central pistil, five stamens, a rotate corolla, 
with five lobes alternating with the stamens, 
and a calyx with five teeth alternating with the corolla. Then the Calceolaria would pass from the 
family of scrophulariaceaj into that of solanacea;, and the flower would realise its regular type, its 
native beauty — for it cannot be denied that beauty results from symmetry, and symmetry is a 
disposition founded on regularity, or a harmonious relation of numbers, parts, and form. It is a 
remarkable law of nature, that families that are irregular may return by these monstrous forms to 
their regular families ; while we never see a regular flower realise the structure of an irregular one. 
The peloria of Van Oyen does not show the Calceolaria to return to the type of the solanaceae, but 
descends still lower, and realises a still stranger 
form, and one which is opposed to nature — an 
anandrous form, consequently unfitted to per- 
petuate itself. In this respect it is a monster in 
the fullest sense of the term, but one full of 
instruction. 
Another monstrosity, also sent me by M. Van 
Oyen, consisted in a growing together of two 
corollas ; this occurred along with normal regu- 
larity of the calyx. The corolla was bicalcei- 
ferous, having three stamens all fertile, one of which was placed at the junction of the two inferior lips ; 
the ovary is normally conformable, and the calceiform lip was furnished with a lobe turning inwards. 
This form of abnormal development has not yet been recorded in morphological works. It is, I believe, 
a true junction of flowers, complicated by the resorption of the totality of the superior lip, by the non- 
development of the double calyx, and the resorption of one of the four stamens which should have been 
developed. This morphological form may perhaps some day lead to the determination of the real cause 
of synanthous developements. 
