VASCULAR SYSTEMS OF FLORAL ORGANS. 155 
PASSAGE FROM PEDICELS TO THE FLORAL REcEPTACLE. 
Some peduncles and pedicels have just as many cords as there 
are leaves to the perianth for considerable distances downwards. 
It is, however, more often the case that the number does not 
accurately coincide with them, there being one or two more or 
less than the right number. These differences are immaterial ; 
for if there be too few, one or two will divide, and so complete 
the required number as they approach the calyx; or, as is more 
generally the case, they all begin to increase by repeated radial 
chorisis till a complete cylinder is formed, if it have not already 
existed throughout the peduncle or pedicel. 
Then, if the sepals have not a partieularly broad base for their 
insertion, one cord is given off to each sepal, and, having entered 
it, divides into three or more, and may ramify in various degrees. 
In other cases, as the Buttercup, Foxglove, &c., about five or 
six cords are given off to each sepal ; so that the ring (as seen in 
a transverse section) is not divided so observably into definite 
and prominent groups of cords. The broken ring now tends to 
or quite closes up, and prepares for a new whorl. Here, however, 
differences occur. In Ranunculus and its allies (Pl. XXIII.) 
repeated lateral, 7. e. radial, chorisis takes place, and small isolated 
cords are sent off to the stamens and carpels. In other cases, 
where the stamens are epipetalous, the sepaline and petaliue 
cords divide by tangential chorisis *; or it may be very irre- 
gularly, and so supply cords for the stamens which thence stand 
superposed to them, as in Lychnis. 
In this way, for example, do the original eords of the five pri- 
mary *emergences" which develop into the andrecium of the 
Hollyhock branch by radial and tangential chorisis, and so give 
rise to a multifold cluster of filaments and anthers ia a normal 
flower (cf. Malva, x111.; Pl. XXV.). 
In ordinary flowers each whorl has its own proper function : 
but since their cords are all fundamentally alike when axial, it is 
* T use the words “radial” and “ tangential " as applied to chorisis in senses 
opposite to those of Ph. van Tieghem, respectively ; for he applies the words as 
indicating the results, not the processes. Thus, if two organs are superposed 
and originate by chorisis from a common cord, he would call the chorisis radial, 
because the resulting organs stand on the same radius. I call such chorisis 
tangential; for it conveys the idea of a section of the cord made parallel to the 
tangent. 
