sixth stamen and the sixth lobe to the corolla in either case as due to
reversion, any more than the additional petals in double flowers in these same
two families. But the case is different with the fifth stamen in the peloric
Antirrhinum, which is produced by the redevelopment of a rudiment always
present, and which probably reveals to us the state of the flower, as far as
the stamens are concerned, at some ancient epoch. It is also difficult to
believe that the other four stamens and the petals, after an arrest of
development at a very early embryonic age, would have come to full perfection
in colour, structure, and function, unless these organs had at some former
period normally passed through a similar course of growth. Hence it appears to
me probable that the progenitor of the genus Antirrhinum must at some remote
epoch have included five stamens and borne flowers in some degree resembling
those now produced by the peloric form. The conclusion that peloria is not a
mere monstrosity, irrespective of any former state of the species, is
supported by the fact that this structure is often strongly inherited, as in
the case of the peloric Antirrhinum and Gloxinia and sometimes in that of the
peloric Corydalis solida. (13/72. Godron reprinted from the 'Memoires de
l'Acad. de Stanislas' 1868.)

Lastly I may add that many instances have been recorded of flowers, not
generally considered as peloric, in which certain organs are abnormally
augmented in number. As an increase of parts cannot be looked at as an arrest
of development, nor as due to the redevelopment of rudiments, for no rudiments
are present, and as these additional parts bring the plant into closer
relationship with its natural allies, they ought probably to be viewed as
reversions to a primordial condition.]

These several facts show us in an interesting manner how intimately certain
abnormal states are connected together; namely, arrests of development causing
parts to become rudimentary or to be wholly suppressed,--the redevelopment of