I 65°
II 75°
III 45°
IV 90°
V 15°
VI 45°
VII 60°
VIII 80°
IX 50°
X 45°
——
Average 57°
The terminal portion of the raceme, bearing the buds, is strongly
decurved, so that unopened buds obstruct in no way a clear view of the
conspicuous flowers, which thus appear to be terminal. The racemes,
when in flower, are so far to the outside that the flowers are very
little screened by the foliage, whose dark green background renders
them more conspicuous.
The fact that the racemes extend upward at some angle from the
horizontal, by bringing the flowers above the foliage, renders them
more conspicuous.
The terminology used throughout this paper is the same as that
suggested by Professor Todd. Those flowers in which the pistil as a
whole extends towards the right hand, facing in the same direction
as the flower, will be called right-handed, and those in which the
pistil as a whole extends toward the left, left-handed. It will be seen
that, since the tips of pistil and large stamen approach each other,
as above described, the tip of the pistil in a right-handed flower
turns considerably toward the left, and _vice versa_. The flowers on
the right-hand side of the raceme, as we pass out from the central
axis of the plant, are always left-handed, and those on the left side,
right-handed.
Professor Todd found from the examination of a small series of material
that about an equal number of right-and left-handed flowers is
produced. He also says: “It is also a fact of observation that the
flowers of a cluster on any one branch and opening about the same time
are either all right-handed or all left-handed. Any plant, however, if
it is at all large, exhibits right-and left-handed flowers in about
equal numbers.”
The regularity with which the flowers are divided into the two classes
is very striking. Table B shows the condition of ten plants observed at
the same time.