To Maxwell Tylden Masters 6 April [1863]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
April 6th
My dear Sir
I have been very glad to read your Paper on Peloria.2 For mere chance of following case being new, I send it. A plant, which I purchased as Corydalis tuberosa has, as you know, one nectary short, white & without nectar; the pistil is bowed towards the true nectary; & the hood formed by the inner petals slips off towards opposite side (all adaptations to insect agency like many other pretty ones in this Family). Now on my plants there are several flowers (the fertility of which I will observe) with both nectaries equal & purple & secreting nectar; the pistil is straight & the hood slips off either way. In short these flowers have exact structure of Dielytra, & Adlumia. Seeing this I must look at this case as one of Reversion;3 though it is one of the spreading of irregularity to two sides.
As Columbine has all petals &c. irregular & as Monk’s hood has two petals irregular, may not the case given by Serringe & referred to you by you be looked at as Reversion to the Columbine State.?4 would it be too bold to suppose that some ancient Linaria or allied form, & some ancient Viola had all petals spur-shaped, & that all cases of “irregular peloria” in these genera are Reversions to such imaginary ancient form?—5
It seems to me, in my ignorance, that it would be advantageous to consider the two forms of Peloria, when occurring in the very same species, as probably due to same general law viz one as reversion to very early state, & the other as reversion to a later state when all the petals were irregularly formed. This seems at least to me a priori a more probable view; than to look at one form of Peloria as due to Reversion & the other as something distinct.6
What do you think of this notion?—
My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch Darwin.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Seringe, Nicolas Charles. 1823. Musée Helvétique d’Histoire Naturelle. (Partie botanique.) Ou collection de mémoires, monographies, notices botaniques … par N. C. Seringe. Berne, Switzerland: J. J. Burgdorfer.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Comments on MTM’s article ["On the existence of two forms of peloria", Nat. Hist. Rev. n.s. 3 (1863): 258–62]. Cites interesting case of peloric flower.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4076
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Maxwell Tylden Masters
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Catherine Barnes (dealer) (January 2002)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp & C 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4076,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4076.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11