Vegetable Teratology: An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of PlantsMasters, Maxwell T. (Maxwell Tylden)
Science
Vegetable Teratology: An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants
Masters, Maxwell T. (Maxwell Tylden)
Plants -- Abnormalities
Peloria is either complete or incomplete; it is complete when the flower
appears perfectly symmetrical, it is incomplete when only a portion of
the flower is thus rendered regular. It is very common, for instance, to
find violets or Linarias with two or three spurs, and these intermediate
stages are very interesting, as they serve to show in what way the
irregularity is brought about. In _Antirrhinum_, _Linaria_, &c.,
intermediate forms show very clearly that it is to the repetition of the
form usually assumed by the petals of the lower lip that the condition
is due. This is also obvious in peloric flowers of the _Calceolaria_.
The perfect peloria of this flower is in general erect, with five
regular sepals, a regular corolla contracted at the base and at the
apex, but distended in the centre so as to resemble a lady's sleeve,
tight at the shoulder and wrist, and puffed in the centre!
[Illustration: FIG. 122.--Peloric flower of _Calceolaria_.]
Morren[233] describes a form intermediate between the ordinary
slipper-shaped corolla and the perfect peloria just described, and which
he calls sigmoid peloria. This flower is intermediate in direction
between the erect peloria and the ordinary reflected flower. The tube is
curved like a swan's neck and is dilated in front into two hollow
bosses, such as we see in the lower lip of an ordinary flower; beyond
these it is contracted and is prolonged into a slender beak terminating
in two hollow teeth, between which is the narrow orifice of the
corolla. The colour at the base of the tube inside is as in the perfect
peloria; while round the summit of the tube, in both cases, the
intensity of colour is greatest on the outside. Now, in a normal flower
the deepest colour is within just opposite the orifice of the corolla;
this deep colour is also seen outside of the central and most elevated
portions of the lower lip. In the peloria the deep colour at the base of
the tube represents that which is near the orifice under ordinary
circumstances, while the outer patch of colour at the apex corresponds
to that formed on the upper surface of the lower lip. On the other hand,
in peloric flowers of _Cytisus Laburnum_, _Clitoria Ternatea_,
_Trifolium repens_, and other Papilionaceae, it is the "standard," the
form of which is repeated. In the case of peloric aconites[234] the
lateral and sometimes the inferior coloured sepals assume the hooded
form usually peculiar to the upper sepal only, the number of the petals
or nectaries being correspondingly increased. Balsams become peloric by
the augmentation in the number of spurs.[235] So when orchids are
affected with irregular peloria it is the form of the labellum that is
repeated, the accessory lips being sometimes the representatives of
stamens, which are usually suppressed in these flowers,[236] but at
other times the appearance is due simply to the fact that all three
petals assume the form usually confined to the lip, the staminal column
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