PEOLIFICATION OP THE FLOWER. 



153 



by a whorl of five perfect leaves, beyond which, again, 

 the axis was prolonged into a leafy shoot terminated 

 by a flower bud, the whole constituting a remarkably 

 complicated admixture of elements belonging to the 

 flower, the bud, the inflorescence, and the leaf- 

 shoot.* 



Proliferous flowers of Orchids also occasionally pre- 

 sent great complexity in the arrangement of then' 

 parts. An instance of this kind was described by 

 myself from specimens furnished by Dr. Moore, of 

 Glasnevin, in the ' Journal of the Linnean Society,' 

 vol. ix, p. 349, tabs, x, xi, and from which the follow- 

 ing summary is extracted : 



The primary flowers were composed of five distinct 

 whorls, and of at least two others less perfectly 

 developed. These primary flowers did not give rise to 



J^ 



Bract. 



Fio. 69. Proliferous Orchis. Diagram showing the arrangement of 

 the several organs in the seven outer circles of the flower. Each whorl 

 is numbered, and the position of the axillary buds shown by the small 

 circles. 



' Moquin-Tandon gives the following references to cases of proliferous 

 roses, but some I have not been able to verify. 'Joum. des Sav.,* 

 22 Mai, 1679. Hottinger, ' Ephem. Nat. Cur.,' dec. 3, ann. 9 et 10, 

 p. 249. Marchant, ' Mem. Acad. Scienc. Paris,' 1707, p. 488. Preussius, 

 Ephem. Nat. Cur.,' cent. 7 et 8. App. p. 83. Schuster, 'Act. Acad. 

 Nat. Cur.,' vol. vi, n. 185. Spadoni, Mem. Soc. Ital.,' t. v, p. 488. Soc 

 also at the end of this section for numerous other references. 



