SYNANTHY. 43 



as to form but a single tube. It is not uncommon, 

 as has been before stated, to find two corollas enclosed 

 within one calyx, but this is probably the only recorded 

 instance of the fusion of the calyx and corolla of two 

 difibrent flowers belonging to two different axes. 



From the preceding details, as well as from others 

 which it is not necessary to give in this place, it Avould 

 appear that synanthy is more liable to occur where the 

 flowers are naturally crowded together^ than where 

 they are remote; so too, the upper or younger por- 

 tions of the inflorescence are those most subject to 

 this change. In like manner the derangements con- 

 sequent on the coalescence of flowers are often more 

 grave in the central organs, which are most exposed 

 to pressure, and have the least opportunities of resist- 

 ing the effects of that agency, than they are in the 

 outer portions of the flowers where growth is less 

 restricted. 



Morren in his papers on synanthic Calceolarias, 

 before referred to, considers that the direction in 

 which fusion acts is centripetal, e.g. from the cir- 

 cumference tow^ards the centre of the flower, thus 

 reversing the natural order of things. He considers 

 that there is a radical antagonism betw^een the normal 

 organizing forces and the teratological disorganizing 

 forces, and explains in this way the frequent sterility 

 of monsters from an imperfect formation of stamens, 

 or pistils, or both. 



The greater tendency in synanthic flowers of parts 

 of one whorl to adhere to the corresponding organs 

 in another flower has often been remarked, though 

 the dislocation of parts may be so great as to prevent 

 this from being carried out in all cases. It appears 

 also that synanthy is more frequently met with among 

 flowers which have an inferior ovary than in those in 

 which the relative position of the organ in question 



' Cramer, ' Bildungsabweichungeu,' p. 56, tab. vii, fig. 10, figures a 

 case wherein the two centi'al flowers of the capitiilum of CerUaureti Jacea 

 were united together. 



