14fO ALTERATION OF POSITION. 



ones. In the prolified flowers belonging to the latter 

 group, the sepals, if not actually uncombined, are 

 only united for a short distance. The same relation- 

 ship, but in a much less degree, exists in the case of 

 median prolification, as that aberration is likewise 

 most commonly met with in polypetalous flowers. 

 Another feature of interest is the rarity with which 

 axillary prolificgition is found in irregular gamopetalous 

 blooms. It may be that the irregular and comparatively 

 excessive growth in some parts of these flowers, as 

 compared with others, may operate in checking any 

 luxuriant tendency in other directions. 



As in the case of median prolification, plants 

 having an indefinite inflorescence are more liable to 

 be affected with ecblastesis than those having a 

 definite one. The degree of branching of the inflo- 

 rescence may be noticed, as this deformity is far 

 more common in plants whose peduncles are branched 

 than in those which have either a soHtary flower or 

 an unbranched flower-stalk. More than two thirds of 

 the entire number of genera cited as the subjects of this 

 malformation have a branched inflorescence of some 

 form or other; and about two thirds of the cases 

 occur in genera having some form of indefinite inflo- 

 rescence. If individual instances could be accu- 

 rately computed, the proportion would be even 

 higher. 



Fully three fourths of the entire number of genera 

 recorded as occasionally the subjects of this irregu- 

 larity possess in their usual state some peculiarity of 

 the thalamus ; for instance, in about a third of the 

 whole number of genera the thalamus is more or 

 less prolonged between some or other of the floral 

 whorl, e. g. Caryophyllacece, Potentilla, Anemone, 

 Dictamnus, Uinbelliferce, &c. About one fourth of 

 the genera have numerous stamens or numerous 

 carpels, or both, springing naturally fi'om the thala- 

 mus. In others (about one sixth) the thalamus is 

 enlarged into a diso, or else presents one or more 



