70 
Salisbury . — Variation in Eranthis hy emails. 
IV. Aconitum napellus, L., and A. Lycoctonum, L. 
(a) Aconitum napellus. The fact that the gynaeceum of this species 
normally exhibits three carpels suggested that even here, despite the obvious 
specialization of the flower, the trimerous tendency might extend to the 
androecium. 
Eighty specimens of this flower were dissected and in every case the 
outer perianth was composed of five members. The inner whorl, inclusive 
of the two nectaries, consisted of eight, or more rarely seven, six, or three 
members. Seventy-three flowers possessed a gynaeceum of three carpels, 
whilst the remaining seven had two perfect carpels. In two of these lattei 
the third carpel was represented by a dwarfed rudiment devoid of ovules. 
Clearly, then, we can attribute the bicarpellary condition to the abortion of 
Fig. 17. Aconitum napellus , variation ‘curve’ 
for androecium. 
J \ conltum Lycoctonum 
Fig. 18. Variation ‘curve’ for the an- 
droecium of Aconitum Lycoctonum. 
one member, and we may note that all conditions from three to one carpel 
are normally encountered in the genus Delphinium. A study of the order 
of dehiscence of the stamens shows that the first to mature constitute 
a trimerous whorl (cf. Fig. 16, B, I, I, 1), of which one member is situated 
opposite the hood and the two others opposite the gaps between the lateral 
and ventral sepals. 
The variation ‘ curve’ for the total number of stamens (Fig. 17) shows 
a range from thirty-nine to fifty-two, with prominent maxima at forty-two, 
forty-five, and fifty-one and an indication of a maximum at forty-eight. 
Here too, then, the minimum number is a multiple of three and the primary 
and secondary maxima indicate quite clearly variations around primary and 
secondary modes corresponding to multiples of that number. As in other 
Ranunculaceous flowers the actual phyllotaxis of the androecium is doubtless 
