AXILE ORGANS. 



347 



be due to fungi as in the witches' brooms (liexenbesen) 

 of the German forests ; in other instances, it is a result 

 of mutilation as after the operation of pollarding. 



Moquin-Tandon^ mentions a case in a grafted ash in 

 the botanic garden of Toulouse, where below the graft 

 there was a large swelling, from which proceeded more 

 than a thousand densely-packed, interlacing branches. 



This must have been similar to the condition so 

 commonly met with in the birch, and frequently in the 

 hornbeam and the thorn, and which has prompted so 

 many a schoolboy to cHmb the tree in quest of the 

 apparent nest. It is probable that some of the large 

 *' gnaurs " or " burrs," met with in elms, &c., also in 

 certain varieties of apples, are clusters of adventitious 

 buds, some of which might, and sometimes do, lengthen 

 out into branches. 



An increased number of branches also necessarily 

 arises when the flower-buds are replaced by leaf-buds. 



Occasionally, a great increase in the number of 

 pedicels, or flower-stalks, may be met with in conjunc- 



Fio. 179. Flower stalks of BeUevalia comota, nat. size, after Mon-en. 



' El. Ter. Veget.,' p. 392. " 



