CHANGE OF DIRECTION. 211 



customary parchment-like carpels, the smaller was 

 destitute of them. 



Sometimes the direction assumed by one flower as 

 an abnormal occurrence is the same as that which is 

 proper to an allied species or genus under natural cir- 

 cumstances ; thus flowers of the vine (Vitis) have been 

 met with in which the petals were spreading like a star 

 (fleurs avalidouires) J as in the genus Cissus} 



Morren describes a curious condition in some flowers 

 of Ciiphea miniata, in which the placenta protruded 

 through an orifice in the ovary, and losing the hori- 

 zontal direction became erect (figs. 113, 114). A similar 

 occurrence happened in Lobelia erinus. To this con- 

 dition the Belgian savant gave the name of gymnaxony.^ 



' Planch on and Mares, ' Ann. Sc. Nat.,' 5 ser., torn, vi, 1866, p. 228, 

 tab. xii. 

 2 ' Bull. Acad. Belg.,' xviii, part ii, p. 293. 



