=Fission of the petals, &c.=--The floral leaves are subject to a similar process of cleavage to that which has just been mentioned as taking place in the leaves. This, indeed, occurs very often as a normal occurrence as in the petals of mignonette (_Reseda_), or those of _Alsine media_ and many other plants. Here, however, we have only to allude to those instances in which the cleavage occurs in flowers whose sepals or petals are usually entire. Under this category Moquin mentions a petal of _Brassica oleracea_ completely split into two. Linne in his 'Flora Lapponica' (pp. 145 and 164) mentions quadrifid petals of _Lychnis dioica_, and much divided petals of _Rubus arcticus_. Among other plants subject to this division of sepals or petals may be mentioned as having come within the writer's personal observation, _Ranunculus Lingua_, _R. acris_, _Papaver somniferum_, and others of this genus, _Saponaria sp._, _Dianthus_, _Narcissus_, &c. In some of the garden varieties of _Cyclamen_ the corolla looks at first sight as if double, and the plan of the flower is oblong or elliptical, instead of circular. In these flowers each lobe of the corolla is divided almost to the base into two lobes, so that there appear to be ten lobes to the corolla instead of five, as usual. The stamens are normal in form and number in these flowers. In the paroquet tulips of gardeners the segments of the perianth are deeply and irregularly gashed, the segments occasionally becoming rolled up and their margins coherent so as to form little tubular spurs. I have also noticed the segments of the perianth in _Crocus_ and _Colchicum_ deeply cleft, so much so sometimes, as to equal in this particular the stigmas. In the flowers of a species of _Oncidium_, communicated to me by Mr. Currey, the lip was divided into three segments perfectly distinct one from the other, but confluent with the column; the two side pieces had callosities at the upper edge close to the base, the central piece had a similar wartlike process in its centre. In these flowers the ovary, the stigma, and the anther were all in a rudimentary condition. Some verbenas raised by Mr. Wills offer a curious illustration of this condition. It will be remembered that some of the lobes or petals of a verbena are normally divided at the base to a slight degree, but in the flowers in question this is carried to such an extent that the enlarged lobes are pushed into the centre of the flower and simulate, at a first glance, a distinct and separate organ, though in reality it is but an enlargement of what occurs normally.[74] [Illustration: FIG. 29.--Flower of _Oncidium sp._ seen from the back. The lip is divided into three unequal segments.]