PBOLIFICATION OP THE FLOWER. 147 



more or less leaf-like carpel ; while at other times a 

 second imperfect carpel has been met with in the axil 

 of the first.^ I have myself seen numerous imperfectly 

 developed cases of this kind. 



It may be asked whether such cases are not more 

 properly referable to central prolification whether the 

 axis is not in such flowers terminated by two, rather 

 than by one carpel ? It is, however, generallj^ admitted 

 by morphologists that the solitary carpel of Leguminosce 

 is not terminal, but is the sole existing member of a 

 whorl of carpels, all the other members of which are 

 suppressed as a general rule, though exceptional in- 

 stances of the presence of two and even of five carpels 

 have been described.^ 



Again, the adventitious bud or carpel is placed, not 

 laterally to the primary one, or opposite to it, on the 

 same level, but slightly higher up in fact, in the axil 

 of the primary carpellary leaf. Griffith figures and 

 describes ^ an instance of the kind in a species of 

 Melilotus. The stalk of the ovary is mentioned as 

 having a sheathing base, bearing in its axil a prolonga- 

 tion of the axis of inflorescence, in the form of a short 

 spike with hairy bracts and imperfect flowers, the 

 latter having a well-formed calyx and rudimentary 

 petals and stamens. Griffith infers, from this specimen, 

 that the legume is not to be considered as a terminal 

 leaf. 



' 'Linnaea/ vol. xv, p. 266, c. ic. Caspary, ' Schriften d. Physik.-Oek. 

 Gresell. zu Konigsberg,' bd. ii, p. 5, tab. iii, fie. 39, &.c. 



' Lindley, ' Veg. King.,' p. 545 ; also Clarke on the Position of 

 Carpels, Linn. See.,' December, 1850. ' Proc. Linn. Soc.,' ii, p. 105. 



' ' NotulsB,' vol. i, Dicot. p. 127. ' Atlaa,' pi. xliii. 



