60 INDEPENDENCE OR SEPARATION OF ORGANS. 



or " dcdoublemont," or witli tlie " disjonctious qui 

 divisent les organes" of Moquiii-Tandon.^ It is usually, 

 but not always, a concomitant with hypertrophy, and 

 dependent on luxuriance of p^rowth. 



It must be understood therefore that the term, as 

 generally applied, does not so much indicate the cleavage 

 of a persistent organ, as it does the formation and 

 development of two or more growing points instead 

 of one, whence results a branching or forking (di-tri- 

 chotomy) of the affected organ. In some instances it 

 seems rather to be due to the relative deficiency of 

 cellular, as contrasted with fibro-vascular tissue. 



Fission of axile organs. This condition is scarcely to be 

 distinguished from multiplication of the axile organs 

 (which see). A little attention, however, will generally 

 show whether the unusual number of branches is a 

 consequence of the development of a large number of 

 distinct shoots, as happens, for instance, when a tree 

 is pollarded, or of a division of one. M. Fournier^ 

 gives as an illustration the case of a specimen of 

 Itiiscus aculeatus in which there occurred a division of 

 the foliaceous branches into two segments, reaching 

 as far as the insertion of the flower, but no further. 

 He also mentions lateral cleavage effected by a notching 

 of the margin, the notch being anterior to the flowers 

 and always directed towards their insertion. In the allied 

 'genus Danae, Webb, ' Phyt. Canar.,' p. 320, describes 

 the fascicles of flowers as in " crenulis brevibus ad 

 marginem ramulorum dispositis." Sometimes, on the 

 other hand, Dana/J has a fascicle of flowers inserted 

 on the middle of the upper surface, as in Uuscus. 

 Wigand mentions an instance in Digitalis lutea^ where 

 the upper part of the stem was divided into six or 

 seven racemes ; possibly this was a case of fasciation, 

 but such a division of the inflorescence is by no means 

 uncommon in the spicate species of Veronica. I have 



Loc. cit.. p. 295. 



= ' Bull. Soc. Bot. Fi-ance,' 1857, p. 758. 



