“Prolifevons Leabes, and Notes thereon.” 
BY iS PRIOW, Mia. 
R. PRICE has, at different times, brought forward the 
subject of the leaf-germination of that very common 
plant Cardamine pratensis, (Meadow-cress, Lady-smock, May- 
flower, &c.,) and has exhibited specimens in various stages of 
development. We may refer our readers to the article 
“ Proliferous leaves” in ‘“ OLD Price’s Remains” p. 347, and 
to several contributions, by him, to the Liverpool Naturalists’ 
Magazine, or Scrap-book, or both, now unhappily extinct. The 
principal phenomena observed are as follows :— 
1. The leaves are, in the strictest sense, ‘“‘ compound,” the 
leaflets being attached to the common petiole by very loose 
joints, so that they are very easily detached, and often cover 
your hand, like wafers, when taking up the plant. Frost, or 
burial in the soil, separates them without at all diminishing 
their vitality. 
2. Each leaflet, however small, and whether attached or 
detached, is apt to germinate under favorable circumstances, 
such as submergence, moisture, and shade (but often without 
these) all through the Winter, which is the period of their 
greatest activity. The terminal leaflet often produces several 
plants. The lateral ones have not yet been observed to do so. 
Little plants issue, more rarely, from the petiole at the junctures 
of the folioles; and axillary sprouts on the stem itself. 
