420 DR. J. C. COSTERUS ON MALFORMATIONS 
the tissues round the vascular bundles are singularly thick, so as 
to give the impression of these peduncles being winged. This 
disturbance, together with the wavy curvature, is evidently attri- 
butable to a difference in rapidity of growth between the ped- 
uncle and the internode; the peduncles which tended to stretch 
out more rapidly were obstructed by the slower growing inter- 
node. The consequence was that the vascular bundles got curved, 
and the cells of the surrounding tissues expanded in a radial 
direction. 
A coalescence of a flower with the foliage-leaf directly beneath 
it is of more frequent occurrence. Of this change, which seems to 
be easiest accomplished at the top of the stem, various degrees 
may be observed. 
In Pl. LIX. fig. 36 is shown adhesion of a leaf a to a flower 5. 
An examination of the specimen itself is necessary to show the 
peduncle grown together with the petiole; moreover, the midrib of 
the leaf has joined the ovary and the calyx-tube ; but higher up 
the leaf gets free, and unlike the basal portion, which is only one- 
sided, becomes complete. Between this flower and the leaf 
springs another flower, which we have disregarded in our draw- 
ing. The same ovary moreover slightly adhered to the base of 
the petiole of the leaf c, in the axil of which a flower is inserted. 
The ovary gradually passes into the calyx-tube, and may be 
distinguished from it externally by the colour. The flower (5) 
further possesses seven floral enveloping leaves, which seem 
disposed in a dextro-spiral manner. The little floral leaf n is the 
lowermost, and is next to the foliage-leaf a, which itself is inserted 
a little lower. Though in the main agrees with a foliage-leaf as 
regards its shape, still the left margin by its red colour betrays 
a passing into true floral envelopes. 
A case like the above, though somewhat less complicated, is sven 
in the de Vries collection under No. 3203. The same collection 
also contains cases which are very difficult to explain. Witness 
No. 3401 for instance. There we find a long stalk bearing two 
peduncled flowers and a petioled leaf at the top. Can, in this 
case, two peduncles and a petiole have coalesced a considerable 
way up? Itis possible, but by no means sure *. 
* Iam much inclined to answer the above question in the affirmative, since 
in the autumn of 1888 I saw, in the Botanical Gardens at Amsterdam, a branch 
of Fuchsi. which showed a foliage-leaf in the axil of another one. Near the base 
of the former leaf there was a small excrescence to be seen, which could be 
