PROLIFICATION OP THE FLOWER. 119 



extension of the placenta into a leafy branch has been 

 observed, as in Lysimackia, where in one case the pro- 

 longed placenta was removed and struck as a cutting.' 

 In Ericacece too, the axile placenta has been seen 

 ovuliferous at the base and prolonged above into a 

 leafy branch.^ 



Median floral prolification. This is of more frequent 

 occurrence than the preceding. The prolonged axis 

 is more frequently terminated by a flower-bud than by 

 a leaf-bud, though it must be remarked, that the 

 lengthened and protruded stem frequently bears leaves 

 upon its sides, even if it terminate in a flower, and 

 thus the new growth partakes of a mixed leafy and 

 floral nature. Instances of this kind have long been 

 familiar to observers, and have always excited attention 

 from the singularity of their appearance. In one of 

 the old stained-glass windows, apparently of Dutch 

 manufacture, in the Bodleian Picture Gallery at Oxford, 

 is a representation of a Ranunculus affected with me- 

 dian floral prolification.^ In pinks the affection is not 

 unfrequently met with. Fig. 60 shows an instance of 

 the kind copied from Schotterbec. 



A singular instance of prolification in the central 

 flower of one of the verticillasters of Phlomis fruticosa 

 fell under my own notice ; it was a case wherein the 

 calyx was torn on one side, and one of its lobes had 

 become petaloid. Between the calyx and the corolla 

 were three or four spathulate, hairy, bract-like organs ; 

 the corolla and stamens were unchanged ; but in place 

 of the usual four-lobed ovary there was a single carpel 

 with a basilar style, terminated by a forked stigma. 

 Occupying the place of the other lobes of the pistil 

 was an oblong woolly flower-bud, consisting of calyx, 

 corolla, and stamens, but with no trace of pistil. I 



' ' Ann. Sc. Nat.,' ser. 3, torn. ii,p. 290 ; and ' Adansonia,' iii, tab. iv; see 

 also Bureau, in ' Bull. Soc. Bot. France,' x, p. 191. 



Baillon, ' Adansonia,' i, 286. 



' See also figure in ' Hort. Eystett. Ic. Plant. Vern.,' fol. 15, fi^. 1. 

 Ranunculus amaiicus. 



