Notes . 
947 
occurred in the preceding year on the same inflorescence of a plant flowering in the 
Begonia House at Kew, but the disposition of the individual flowers, whether terminal 
or lateral, was at that time not noted, nor has the writer observed a recurrence of the 
phenonenon. A reference to the accompanying sketches will illustrate the chief 
points of distinction ; it will be noticed that the addition of three stamens in the peloric 
form has resulted in a consequent diminution of the coralline segments, the corolla 
having become rotate, and its segments more or less rotundate and slightly incurved, 
the stamens alternating with these, and except for an increase in number, and a slight 
dilation at the base of the staminal filaments, identical with those of the normal form. 
The calyx and gynaeceum are apparently the same (the style, however, not exserted), 
the ovoid ellipsoid pollen-grains showing no points of distinction microscopically. 
Intermediate 3-4 stamened forms connecting these two extreme types were also 
noticed, but in the majority of cases they were extremely depauperate and could only 
be designated as malformations. 
There appears little doubt that these peloric types represent a retrogression of 
zygomorphism to a primordially actinomorphic form, or what Morren was pleased to 
term ‘ epanody As to the cause, much conflicting evidence exists, but a fertile ex- 
planation suggested by various authors lies in the excess of food many plants are liable 
to receive under cultivation. The plants at Kew are generously treated from a 
cultural standpoint, and the prevalence of peloriae, especially in gardens, suggests that 
this explanation is not without truth. 
Chorisis (?) in Aristea dichotoma, Ker-Gawl. 
A point of teratological interest worthy of record was noticed by the writer during 
the preceding year at Kew. A profuse blue- 
flowering specimen of Aristea dichotoma , 
a dwarf Iridaceous type, exemplified a 
solitary instance of a four-staminate flower 
instead of the characteristic three-stamened 
type (see Fig. C). In its other characters 
the particular individual conformed to the 
species, being, with the exception of the 
androecium, trimerous in its remaining 
whorls. A close inspection of the flower 
infers that the supernumerary stamen may 
be explained by chorisis or the division of a 
normal stamen, as is evinced by the union 
of the two staminal filaments towards their 
base. The anthers are in all cases normally 
dithecous, with the exception of one which exhibits an atrophied anther-cell, the 
pollen-grains being globular, smooth, and surrounded by a comparatively thick 
translucent cell-wall. In this particular Order these cases are remarkably rare, but 
Messrs. C. H. Wright and W. R. Dykes inform me that they have observed it in 
several Irises. 
R. A. DUMMER. 
Fig. C. Aristea dichotoma , Ker-Gawl. 
Four-staminate flower: (a) point of union of 
two staminal filaments, suggesting chorisis ; 
(0 atrophied anther-cell. 
Kew. 
3 Q 2 
