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.]
Moquin mentions having seen the stamens of _Matthiola incana_ and _Silene conica_ completely divided, each section bearing half an anther, exactly as happens in _Polygalaceæ_. In tulips and lilies the same author mentions division of the anther only, the filament remaining entire, as happens naturally in many species of _Vaccinium_.
A division of the individual carpels occurs very frequently when those organs become more or less leafy, as in _Trifolium repens_, and other plants to be hereafter mentioned.