PEOLTPIOATION OP THE FLOWER. 127 



assumed from the disunion of their margins somewhat 

 of the appearance of leaves, other flowering branches 

 proceed axillary prolification. If, on the other hand, 

 the carpels be few in number, and placed in a verticillate 

 manner, the axis then generally passes upwards without 

 any change in the form or position of the carpels being 

 apparent, as in a proliferous columbine, figured in the 

 * Linnean Transactions,' vol. xxiii, tab. 34, fig. 5. 



When a flower with the ovary naturally inferior or 

 adherent to the calyx becomes prolified, a change in 

 the relative position of the calyx and ovary almost 

 necessarily takes place, the latter becoming superior 

 or detached from the calyx; this has been already 

 alluded to in Umbelliferce. In a species of Campanula 

 examined by me, the calyx was free, the corolla double, 

 the stamens with petaloid filaments, and in the place 

 of the pistil there was a bud consisting of several 

 series of green bracts, arranged in threes, and enclos- 

 ing quite in the centre three carpellary leaves detached 

 from one another and the other parts of the flower, 

 and open along their margins, where the ovules were 

 placed. In other similar instances in the same species 

 of Campanula, the styles were present, forming below 

 an imperfect tube which surrounded the adventitious 

 bud; in another, contrary to what occurs usually in 

 such cases, the ovary was present in its usual position, 

 but surmounted by a bud of leafy scales, enclosed 

 within the base of a tube formed by the union of the 

 styles. A similar relative change in the position of 

 the calyx and the ovary takes place when the Compositce 

 are afiected with central prolification, or even in that 

 lesser degree of change which merely consists in the 

 separation and disunion of the parts of the flower, 

 but which in these flowers appear to be, as it were, 

 the first stage towards prolification. I owe to the 

 kindness of Professor Oliver a sketch of a species of 

 E/udbeckia ? showing this detachment of the calyx from 

 the ovary. In a monstrous Fuchsia that I have had 

 the opportunity of recently examining, the calyx was 



