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.

In the peloric form of Antirrhinum majus, appropriately called the" Wonder,"
the tubular and elongated flowers differ wonderfully from those of the common
snapdragon; the calyx and the mouth of the corolla consist of six equal lobes,
and include six equal instead of four unequal stamens. One of the two
additional stamens is manifestly formed by the development of a
microscopically minute papilla, which may be found at the base of the upper
lip of the flower of the common snapdragons in the nineteen plants examined by
me. That this papilla is a rudiment of a stamen was well shown by its various
degrees of development in crossed plants between the common and the peloric
Antirrhinum. Again, a peloric Galeobdolon luteum, growing in my garden, had
five equal petals, all striped like the ordinary lower lip, and included five
equal instead of four unequal stamens; but Mr. R. Keeley, who sent me this
plant, informs me that the flowers vary greatly, having from four to six lobes
to the corolla, and from three to six stamens. (13/71. For other cases of six
divisions in peloric flowers of the Labiatae and Scrophulariaceae see Moquin-
Tandon 'Teratologie' page 192.) Now, as the members of the two great families
to which the Antirrhinum and Galeobdolon belong are properly pentamerous, with
some of the parts confluent and others suppressed, we ought not to look at the