On Linaria alpina. 167 
ON THE RELATION OF LINARIA ALPINA TYPE TO 
ITS VARIETIES CONCOLOR AND ROSEA. 
By Edith R. Saunders, 
Lecturer and late Fellow , Newuham College , Cambridge. 
f'l^HE type form of Linaria alpina is distinguished from the 
* varieties concolor and rosea by differences in the colouring of 
the corolla. In the type form the corolla is deep blue except on the 
ridges of the palate where it is orange or orange-yellow. Just 
within the throat, and concealed by the upper lip, there is also a 
double line of orange due to the presence of orange-coloured hairs 
on either side of the channel leading down to the opening of the 
spur. The orange colouration is mainly due to the presence in the 
papilliform epidermal cells of the palate and in the long hairs of the 
beard of a viscous orange-yellow fluid which does not immediately 
diffuse out of the cells when they are ruptured. But there is also 
a certain amount of colour in the cuticle, the numerous projections 
which cover the whole surface of the exposed cell-walls being 
distinctly yellowish. 
In the variety concolor the orange colour is absent from the 
palate, the ridges either showing white or becoming so invaded by 
the surrounding blue that the flower appears self-coloured: the 
hairs in the throat however are coloured as in the type. 1 Coloration 
of beard and palate are evidently distinct characters. In this form 
then we have not absolute inability to produce a certain coloured 
substance which is found in the type, but only inability to form it 
in a particular region. 
In the variety rosea beard and palate are coloured as in the 
type, but the colour of the rest of the flower is pink instead of blue. 
Here the blue colouring matter is not formed at all. 
As regards distribution, the type form and concolor are both 
common in some localities, occurring often within a few yards of one 
another; in other places one form only may be found, or one may 
be far more abundant than the other. Thus according to Knuth 2 
1 In neither form as a rule is the beard visible unless the lips are 
pressed apart, but occasionally a few hairs may be seen pro¬ 
truding in unhandled flowers. In the type form this condition 
may easily escape notice, since the orange of the beard then 
appears merely as a continuation of the orange of the palate, 
but in the concolor variety a spot of orange in an otherwise 
wholly blue flower is noticed at once. This, it must be noted, 
is quite a distinct feature from the palate character. 
s Handbook of Flower Pollination, Vol. 3, p. 176. 
