7 2 Salisbury .— Variation in Eranthis hyemalis , 
is often not a multiple of five. Moreover, the same explanation can be 
advanced since partially branched stamens (cf. Fig. 16, c) are sometimes 
encountered and indicate the tendency towards fission of primordia. 
VI. Various other Ranunculaceae. 
(a) Delphinium sp. Fifty flowers of a species of Delphinium belonging 
to the section Staphisagria with three, or rarely two, carpels were dissected, 
and in two examples branched stamens were observed. In the one case 
three anthers were present on the same filament and in the second instance 
two (cf. Fig. 1 6 , D and e). 
The number of stamens was most frequently thirty-two, this being the 
case in thirteen specimens. Seven flowers had thirty stamens and eight 
had thirty-three. If one may judge 
by this small number, the mode is 
here not a multiple of three, but it is 
significant that the minimum number 
of stamens was twenty-seven and the 
number of carpels almost invariably 
three. 
In one specimen six inner peri- 
anth segments were present, in 
place of the normal four, but since 
the androecium consisted of thirty- 
three stamens the increase cannot be 
attributed to transformation. The 
facts, then, seem to warrant the as- 
sumption that, here too, fission of 
both perianth and ^staminal rudi- 
ments takes place as in other members of this family. 
(b) Ranunculus bulbosus. Out of several hundred flowers of this species 
forty-one exhibited supernumerary members in one or other whorl of the 
perianth. The details of these specimens are given in Table X. It will be 
noted that in only one instance was the increased number of petals asso- 
ciated with a diminished number of sepals, and, further, that an increase in 
the number of sepals was, in every case, accompanied by an increase in the 
number of petals. The additional sepals may therefore be regarded as the 
result of fission of the original sepal rudiments. The same explanation can 
be applied to the corolla, for we find that large numbers of petals are almost 
invariably associated with an increased number of stamens, as indicated by 
the following floral formulae of some conspicuous examples : 
K 5, C 6, A 6i, G 36 
K 5, C8, A 54, G 37 
K 6, C7, A 71, G 37 
K 6., C 5, A 60, G 41 
Fig. 19. Variation ‘curve’ for the gynaeceum 
of A quilegia sp. 
