Some flowers have almost certainly become more or less completely peloric
through reversion, as the following interesting case shows. Corydalis tuberosa
properly has one of its two nectaries colourless, destitute of nectar, only
half the size of the other, and therefore, to a certain extent, in a
rudimentary state; the pistil is curved towards the perfect nectary, and the
hood, formed of the inner petals, slips off the pistil and stamen in one
direction alone, so that, when a bee sucks the perfect nectary, the stigma and
stamens are exposed and rubbed against the insect's body. In several closely
allied genera, as in Dielytra, etc., there are two perfect nectaries, the
pistil is straight, and the hood slips off on either side, according as the
bee sucks either nectary. Now, I have examined several flowers of Corydalis
tuberosa, in which both nectaries were equally developed and contained nectar;
in this we see only the redevelopment of a partially aborted organ; but with
this redevelopment the pistil becomes straight, and the hood slips off in
either direction, so that these flowers have acquired the perfect structure,
so well adapted for insect agency, of Dielytra and its allies. We cannot
attribute these coadapted modifications to chance, or to correlated
variability; we must attribute them to reversion to a primordial condition of
the species.
The peloric flowers of Pelargonium have their five petals in all respects
alike, and there is no nectary so that they resemble the symmetrical flowers
of the closely allied genus Geranium; but the alternate stamens are also
sometimes destitute of anthers, the shortened filaments being left as
rudiments, and in this respect they resemble the symmetrical flowers of the
closely allied genus Erodium. Hence we may look at the peloric flowers of
Pelargonium as having reverted to the state of some primordial form, the
progenitor of the three closely related genera of Pelargonium, Geranium, and
Erodium.
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