CHLORANTHY. 279 



remarks with justice that the position of the flowers 

 on the axis is of importance with reference to the 

 existence of chloranthy. Terminal flowers are more 

 subject to it than lateral ones, and if the latter, by 

 accident, become terminal, they seem peculiarly Uable 

 to assume a foliaceous condition. Kirschleger says, 

 that in Buhus there are two sorts of chloranthy, ac- 

 cording as the anomaly affects the ordinary flowering 

 branches, or the leafy shoots of the year, the summits 

 of which, instead of developing in the customary 

 manner, terminate each in one vast and long inflor- 

 escence, very loose and indeterminate, and with 

 axillary flowers.^ 



On the whole, taking in consideration cases of par- 

 tial frondescence, as well as those in which most of the 

 parts of the flower are affected, phyllody would seem to 

 be most common in the petals and carpels, least so in 

 the case of the stamens and sepals. It is more common 

 among polysepalous and polypetalous plants than in 

 those in which the sepals or petals are united together. 



The causes assigned for these phenomena are chiefly 

 those of a nature to debilitate or injure the plant; 

 thus it has been frequently observed to follow the 

 puncture of an insect. M. Guillard" gives an instance 

 in Stellaria media where the condition appeared to be 

 due to the attacks of an insect Thr'q^s fasciata. Still 

 more commonly it arises from the attacks of parasitic 

 fungi, e. g. Uredo cmidida, in Crucifers, &c. 



In other cases it has been observed when the plants 

 have been growing in very damp places, or in very wet 

 seasons, or in the shade, or where the plant has been 

 much trampled on. This happens frequently with 

 TrifoHum repens. The frequency with which the 

 change is encountered in this particular species is 

 very remarkable ; it is difficult to see why one species 

 should be so much more subject to the kind of change 

 than another of nearly identical conformation. 



' Bull. S)c. Bot. Franco.' 1862, vol. ix, p. 3G, tab. i, and also p. 291. 

 ' Ibid., 1857, vol. iv, p. 7<;i. 



