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' Pliilosophia Botanica,' he is disposed to regard as formed by a group 

 of coherent stems. According to this view the real peculiarity would 

 consist in the number and remarkable arrangement of the buds, the 

 coherence of stems brought together in such a relative position being, 

 as shown by innumerable examples, a matter of course. Having 

 regard to the crowded or unusually placed buds which are found in 

 the anomaly called plica, tracing this cohesion upwards from the not 

 uncommon adherence of two stems, and observing what must neces- 

 sarily happen from numerous branches occurring together, it seems to 

 him that the fascia is by no means difficult of comprehension. The 

 striae which it almost invariably presents exhibit the traces of the 

 lines of junction ; and the curved or spiral contraction, which is so 

 often met with, is perhaps accounted for by the growth in connexion 

 with each other of internodes of unequal length. He would not, 

 however, affirm that every stem which is called fasciale is composite 

 in its nature ; for that term has been extended to cases of riband-like 

 expansion, which, although dependent also on excess of nourishment, 

 are distortions of a single stem. 



Mr. Hincks then refers to the objections taken to the theory of Lin- 

 naeus by several recent physiologists, and most clearly and explicitly 

 stated by M. Moquin-Tandon in his 'Teratologic 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 united together." 2. " On certain fasci- 

 ated stems we may remark that the branches are of the same number 

 and the same arrangement as in the 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 intimate : 

 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 f.ntirely 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 



