[129]

[As DAR209.4.128]

[129v]

[text excised] numerous numerous, which obviously differ from each other in the length of their pistil & stamens.*(a) (Back) This difference has hitherto been looked at as a case of mere variability, but this view, as we shall presently see, is far from the true one. Florists who cultivate the Polyanthus & Auricula have long been aware of the two kinds of flowers, & they call the plants which display the globular stigma at the mouth of the corolla, "pin-headed" or "pin-eyed", & those which display three anthers, "thrum-eyed".*(b) I will [illeg]

*(b) In Johnson's Dictionary, thrum is said to be the end of weaver's threads; & I suppose that some weaver who cultivated the polyanthus invented this name, from being struck with some degree of resemblance between the cluster of anthers at the mouth of the corolla & the ends of his threads.

[Forms of flowers, p. 14: "IT has long been known to botanists that the common Cowslip (Primula veris, Brit. Flora, var. officinalis, Lin.) exists under two forms, about equally numerous, which obviously differ from each other in the length of their pistils and stamens.* This difference has hitherto been looked at as a case of mere variability, but this view, as we shall presently see, is far from the true one. Florists who cultivate the Polyanthus and Auricula have long been aware of the two kinds of flowers, and they call the plants which display the globular stigma at the mouth of the corolla, "pin-headed" or "pin-eyed," and those which display the anthers, "thrum-eyed."† I will designate the two forms as the long-styled and short-styled.
The pistil in the long-styled form is almost exactly twice as long as that of the short-styled. The stigma
* This fact, according to von Mohl ('Bot. Zeitung,' 1863, p. 326) was first observed by Persoon in the year 1794.
† In Johnson's Dictionary, thrum is said to be the ends of weavers' threads; and I suppose that some weaver who cultivated the polyanthus invented this name, from being struck with some degree of resemblance between the cluster of anthers in the mouth of the corolla and the ends of his threads."]