A PROLIFEROUS MIGNONETTE. 215 
which exhibited a much greater development, and from one of 
which Plate XXXII. was drawn. 
The large panicles into which the spikes have now developed are 
more than a foot in length, branching profusely to within a few 
inches of the apex, with elegantly depressed branches having their 
apices ascending. The whole is covered with double and richly 
scented. flowers. 
The proliferous character of the specimen is seen in the fact 
that every branch arises out of the centre of an abortive flower, 
and occupies the place of the pistil. Occasionally two branches 
arise out of the same flower. In some cases a whorl of open, but 
coherent carpels is seen, showing that the branch originates from 
the middle of that whorl (see fig. 2, Pi). 
Each of the branches, especially the lower, may have lateral 
ones. These also in the same way rise out of the centres of simi- 
larly proliferous flowers. 
The plant cannot set seed, but has been readily propagated by 
cuttings. lt is a handsome variety, totally uulike any of the 
finest of the ordinary kinds of Mignonette, and has a rich per- 
fume resembling apricots, or, as some think, that of peaches. 
A monstrous form of Mignonette was described and figured by 
the late Prof. J. S. Henslow in a paper read before the Cambridge 
Philosophical Society in 1832, and published in the Transactions. 
In that case the axis of the flower was elongated, but bore a mal- 
formed ovary at the extremity, while the disk disappeared. The 
tendency of the flower, however, was to be foliaceous ; the petals, 
stamens, carpels, and ovules assuming a more or less green and 
leaf-like character. Hence it in no way resembled the double 
form herein described *. 
Another instance was met with last autumn (1881), in which the 
calyx was normal, the corolla, stamens, and pistil absent. In their 
stead was a prolonged axis, bearing below numerous, scattered, 
more or less petaloid scales, and, above, a raceme of flowers. Each 
of the secondary flowers had a calyx and corolla, as usual, or an 
increased number of sepals and petals, but no stamens. In the 
centre was a stipitate ovary with imperfect ovules. 
It is to be observed that when the axis of the flower elongates 
in the above monstrous states, the disk either vanishes altogether, 
or else assumes a regular form as a thickened ring or cylinder 
about the axis, instead of being unilateral as in normal flowers. 
* See also Schimper, Bot. Zeit. ser. 1 (1829), p. 428. 
