550 MH, J. PARKIN ON THE 
Having once transferred the flower-production to the subordinate shoots, 
it is a short step for the tree to differentiate shoots set apart for flowering 
from those bearing Foliage only. Flower-bearing, that is to say repro- 
duetive, shoots tend to be short, with few foliage leaves, in contrast to the 
purely vegetative shoots, which are often long and many-leaved. This is 
shown, for example, in the fruit-spurs of apple-trees, ete. 
Eliminate the foliage completely from such a shoot or spur, and a solitary 
axillary flower is obtained, provided that the flower was originally singly 
borne, and that the foliage, from the axil of which the flower-shoot springs, 
persists. 
This is the explanation advanced for the evolution of solitary axillary 
flowers from solitary terminal ones in some of the Magnoliacem. 
Michelia fuscata.—The small flowers of this species are borne singly in the 
axils of the foliage leaves. The flower-stalk is quite short, and bears mid- 
way a marked scar. In the young stage the flower-bud appears to be 
encased by two bracts, one at the base of the flower-stalk and the other 
half-way up, corresponding to the sear, Hence this naked flower-shoot 
shows signs of having once possessed foliar members, and so been a leafy 
shoot. This flower, then, cannot be considered as primitively axillary, but is 
rather to be regarded as having been derived from a solitary terminal 
flower. 
Michelia Champaca.—The solitary axillary flower has a short stalk, showing 
two nodes. Occasionally an indication of a foliage leaf ean be found on 
this stalk. 
If such a flower, as the foregoing, be not developed till after the subtending 
leaf has fallen, then the flower will appear on a naked stem just above a 
leaf-scar, and thus cease to be strictly axillary, though in origin it 
is such. 
The flowers of Asimina triloba and Chimonanthus fragrans appear to 
belong to this category. 
Asimina triloba (Anonacew.)—The previous year’s shoot of this deciduous 
shrub produces solitary flowers from the lower, and leafy vegetative 
shoots from the upper nodes. The flower-stalk bears no bracteoles, but has 
an articulation which points to the former possession of a leaf-structure. 
There is little doubt, then, that this floral shoot once possessed leaves, and has 
evolved froin a leafy shoot ending in a solitary terminal flower. 
Chimonanthus fragrans.—The flowers are produced singly from the nodes 
of the previous year's shoot. Each js sessile, with numerous brown mem- 
branous scales. This shrub has doubtless sprung from a form resembling 
the existing species of Calycanthus, in which the flowers are borne terminally 
to leafy shoots. "These latter ean be quite short, with only a pair of foliage 
leaves. 
