PABT I. 



INCREASED NUMBER OF ORGANS. 



An augmentation in the number of parts may arise 

 from several causes, and may sometimes be more 

 apparent than real. True multiplication exists simply 

 as a result of over- development ; the affected organs 

 are repeated sometimes over and over again each in 

 their proper relative position, and without any trans- 

 mutation of form. 



Metamorphy, on the other hand, often gives rise to 

 the impression that parts are increased in number, 

 when it may be that the stamens and pistils, one or 

 both, are not so much increased in number as altered 

 in appearance. The double anemones and ranunculus 

 of gardens, amongst many other analogous illustrations, 

 may be mentioned. In these flowers, owing to the 

 petalody of the stamens and pistils, one or both, an 

 impression of exaggerated number is produced, which 

 is by no means necessarily a true one. Fission or 

 lateral subdivision also gives rise to. an apparent 

 increase in number ; thus, some so-called double 

 flowers, the elements of which appeared to be increased 

 in numbers, owe the appearance merely to the lacinia- 

 tion or subdivision of their petals. 



The French botanists, following Dunal and Moquin, 

 attribute an increase in the number of whorls in the 

 corolla, and other parts of the flower, to a process 

 which they call chorisis, and they consider the augmen- 

 tation to be due to the splitting of one petal, for 

 instance, into several ; somewhat in the same manner 

 as one may separate successive layers of talc one from 

 the other. 



