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Updated: June 21, 2025
In both these last named cases the peloric form arose spontaneously in places which had often been visited by botanists before the recorded appearance, and therefore, without any doubt, they must have been produced directly and independently by the ordinary species which grows in the locality. The same holds good for other occurrences of it.
And this discussion has the further advantage of showing the way, in which perhaps a full and constant race of peloric toad-flaxes may be obtained. Two individuals of different type are required to start from. They seem as yet never to have arisen from one group of mutations.
It seems to be quite constant from seed. Many other instances of peloric flowers are on record. Indian cress or Tropaeolum majus loses the spur in some double varieties and with it most of its symmetrical structure; it seems to be considered justly as a peloric malformation. Other species produce such anomalies only from time to time and nothing is known about their hereditary tendency.
About that time very good descriptions with plates were published in the journal "Flora" by Vrolik, but afterwards they seem to have been forgotten. The peloric variety of the foxglove always comes true from seed, though in the strict sense of the word which we have chosen for our discussion, it does not seem to be a constant and pure variety.
Peloric flowers are terminal in some cases, but occur in the lower parts of the flower-spikes in others. Some varieties of gladiolus commence on each spike with more or less double flowers, which, higher up, are replaced by single ones. A wide range of bulbs and perennial garden-plants develop their varietal characters only partly when grown from seed and flowering for the first time.
In other cases no treatment and no selection are adequate to give a similar result, and the anomaly remains refractory despite all our endeavors to breed it. The cockscomb and the peloric fox-glove are widely known instances of permanent anomalies, and others will be dealt with in future lectures.
The variety is old and widely disseminated, but must be subjected to quite a number of additional experiments before it can be said to be sufficiently understood. The most widespread peloric variety is that of Gloxinia. It has erect instead of drooping flowers; and with the changed position the structure is also changed.
New species and varieties occur from time to time in the wild state. Setting aside all theoretical conceptions as to the common origin of species at large, the undoubted fact remains that new forms are sometimes met with. In the case of the peloric toad-flax the mutations are so numerous that they seem to be quite regular.
To this end I saved the seeds from duly isolated groups in different years and sowed them at different times. For various causes I was not prepared to have large cultures from these seeds, but notwithstanding this, the mutation repeated itself. In one instance I obtained two, in another, one peloric plant with exclusively many-spurred flowers.
And as they are the ancestors of the first closely observed case of peloric mutation, it seems worth while to give some details regarding their fertilization. Isolated plants of Linaria vulgaris do not produce seed, even if freely pollinated by bees. Pollen from other plants is required.
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