PROLIFICATION OF THE FLOWER. 125 



Not only are the carpels thus frequently separated 

 one from the other by the prolonged axis, but they 

 undergo commonly a still further change in becoming 

 more or less completely foliaceous, as in the Daucus 

 just mentioned, where the carpels were prolonged into 

 two lance-shaped leaves, whose margins in some cases 

 were shghtly incurved at the apex, forcibly calling to 

 mind the long *' beaks " that some Umbelliferous 

 genera have terminating their fruits for instance, 

 Scandix. Dr. Norman, in the fourth series of the 

 * Annales des Sciences,' vol. ix, has described a prolifi- 

 cation of the flower of Anchiisa ochroleucay in which 

 the pistil consisted of two leaves, situated antero-pos- 

 teriorly on a long internode, with a small terminal 

 flower-bud between them; and numerous similar in- 

 stances might be cited. 



In this place may also be noticed those instances 

 wherein the placenta elongates so much that the peri- 

 carp becomes ruptured to allow of the protrusion of 

 the placenta, although this prolongation is not attended 

 by the formation of new^ buds. Cases of this kind 

 occurring in Mela.stoma and Solanmn have been put on 

 record by M. Alph. de CandoUe.^ This is a change 

 analogous with that which occurs in some species of 

 Leontice or CmdojjhijUuni, as commented on by Robert 

 Brown. See 'Miscellaneous Botanical Works' of this 

 author, Ray Society, vol. i^ p. 359. 



If the pistil be apocarpous, and the carpels arranged 

 spirally on an elevated thalamus, it then frequently 

 happens that the carpels, especially the upper ones, 



shows how each of these ribs is divided at the vascular rim, and the 

 uppermost row shows their distribution above the rim. From this it 

 wm be seen that six of the calycine ribs divide into three branches, one 

 prolonged upwards as a lateral or median rib into the carpellary leaf, 

 the other running horizontally to join with similar branches sent out 

 from the neighbouring rib ; tne four intermediate calycine ribs divide 

 into two branches only, which join the side branches of the first men- 

 tioned, but have no direct upward prolongation into the carpel. The 

 ten ridges are placed opposite to the sepals and petals. 



' ' Neue Denkschriften der allgemeine Schweizerischen Gresellschaft,' 

 bands. 1841. tab. 2. 



