2G0 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
ceptional in regard to the frequency of their production, are not 
deformities, hut exactly the reverse of deformities, viz. flowers, in 
which the primordial regularity of form is not departed from—is 
singularly inappropriate. Of the two, it would he more correct to 
include the original Linnsean Peloria under this group, than to place 
it, as Moquin does, under the head of “ regular alterations of Porm.” 
It is now too late, and it would lead to too much confusion, to 
change the application of the term Peloria, hut it is evident, from 
what has been before said, that the definition previously given of 
Peloria, as an accidental return to the regular type, does not apply 
to the class of flowers to which it is given; while, on the other hand, 
it does apply with strict truth to a set of flowers, which by systematic 
writers are classed as deformities, or irregular alterations of form! 
As the word Peloria itself merely signifies something strange and out 
of the common way, there can he no objection, I think, to the intro¬ 
duction of the terms Regular and Irregular Peloria. “ Regular or 
Congenital Peloria” would include those flowers which, contrary to 
their usual habit, retain throughout the whole of their growth their 
primordial regularity of form and equality of proportion. “ Irregular 
or Acquired Peloria,” on the other hand, would include those flowers 
in which the irregularity of growth that ordinarily characterizes 
some portions of the corolla is manifested in all of them. By way of 
illustration, I will now cite a few instances of both forms of Peloria, 
which will serve to explain the differences between them, better than 
any description could do. 
Among the Aconites we occasionally find an increase in the num¬ 
ber of irregular portions. Seringe* describes and figures a flower 
wherein all the sepals were helmet-shaped and all the petals presented 
that peculiar form, which, under ordinary circumstances, is assumed 
by two only, the other three being reduced to the condition of mere 
scales. On the other hand, in some garden varieties of Columbine, 
Aquilegia , the irregularity disappears almost entirely. So I have 
met with specimens of Delphinium peregrinum from Syria, in the 
herbarium of Sir Win. Hooker, in which the flowers were quite 
regular and had never deviated from the regular form:—In these speci¬ 
mens the calyx consisted of five hairy sepals, within which were an 
equal number of stalked petals, with oblong laminae, somewhat shorter 
than the stalks; the stamens and pistils presented nothing unusual. 
In Violets both varieties of Peloria occur, that in which there are 
supernumerary spurs and that in which there are no spurs at all, as 
in the var. anectaria. In Pelargonium , the central flower of the 
truss frequently retains its regularity, so as to become like that of a 
Geranium. This change is, as Mr. Darwin remarks, accompanied by 
other changes, such as the loss of colour in the two upper petals, the 
absence of the nectary, &c.f 
Among the Papilionacece , I have met with perfectly regular flowers 
* Mus. Helvet. i. p. 132. 
f Origin of Species, p. 145. 
