216 Linnean Society. [Aprils, 



Linnaeus by several recent physiologists, and most clearly and ex- 

 plicitly stated by M. Moquin Tandon in his ' Teratologie Vegetale ' 

 under the following heads : — 1. " We find plants with a single stem 

 fasciated (as Androsace maxima), and nothing announces to us that 

 we have in this case several individuals imited together." 2. " On 

 certain fasciated stems we may remark that the branches are of the 

 same number and the same arrangement as in tlie normal condition." 

 3. " Two branches accidentally united in the direction of their length 

 form a body of which the transverse section presents a figure more 

 or less resembling a figure of 8, if the coherence is recent or slight, 

 and an elliptic or rounded figure if it is of long standing or very in- 

 timate : traces of two medullary canals are almost always found. In 

 a fasciated stem the section gives an elongated figure in which we 

 commonly observe only one compressed canal." 4. " To obtain a 

 fasciated stem by coherence a great number of united branches 

 would be required ; but though an accidental union of two branches 

 or of three may be admitted, it is very difficult for it to occur at the 

 same time among four, five, or six. It is very difficult to suppose 

 that these branches should all meet longitudinally, and that the 

 union, instead of taking place around the central axis, should be en- 

 tirely in one direction," 5. " If fasciated stems were the result of 

 many combined branches, we ought to find cases in which the union 

 is incomplete, and to be able to observe on their surface such a dis- 

 tribution of leaves or buds as would announce the fusion of many 

 partial spirals or verticils." 



Setting aside the anomalies before alluded to, and guarding 

 against the assumption that mere adherence explains an appearance 

 which chiefly depends upon a peculiar position of buds and the pro- 

 duction of numerous branches in a certain relation to each other, 

 Mr. Hincks regards these arguments as not possessing any great 

 weight. In regard to the 1st he remarks, that herbaceous plants 

 which have usually but a single stem, not unfrequently produce 

 several, which often remain distinct, but their union into a sort of 

 fasciated stem is by no means uncommon. In proof of this he 

 showed specimens of Primula vulgaris and Hieracium aureum, exhi- 

 biting the union of two stems so produced, and of Ranunculus bul- 

 bosus showing still greater complexity in the stem, while the prin- 

 cipal flower appeared to be made up of two or three combined. 

 The 2nd objection may appear in certain cases to be just, but the 

 author is of opinion that it is hazardous to conjecture that we have 

 no more leaves present in a fasciated stem than we should have in 

 the same space in an ordinary one, and he referred to specimens on 



