Fig. 108 shows the usual irregular form of Gloxinia, with which may be contrasted figs. 109, 110 and 111.
Fig. 109 shows the regular erect form; fig. 110 the calyx of the same flower; while in fig. 111 are shown the stamens and style of the two plants respectively. In the upper figure the style of the peloriate variety is shown as nearly straight, and the stamens undergo a corresponding change. No doubt the relative fertility and capacity for impregnation of the two varieties is affected in proportion to the change of form. The Gloxinia affords an instance of regular congenital peloria in which the regularity of form and the erect direction are due to an arrest, not of growth, but of development, in consequence of which the changes that ordinarily ensue during the progress of the flower from its juvenile to its fully formed condition do not take place.
Fig. 110.—Calyx of erect Gloxinia.
Fig. 111.—Stamens of erect regular, and of pendent irregular-flowered Gloxinia.
A similar alteration accompanies this form of peloria in other flowers (see Peloria). A change in direction may result also from other circumstances than those just alluded to. Abortion or suppression of organs will induce such an alteration; thus in a flower of Pelargonium now before me three of the five carpels, from some cause or other, are abortive and much smaller than usual, and the style and the beak-like torus are bent downwards towards the stunted carpels instead of being, as they usually are, straight.