SUPPRESSION. 409 



gardener is shown in his attempt to discover and allow 

 the plant to avail itself of the necessary requirements. 

 We need here only allude to those instances in which 

 provision is made for the production 'of flowers, and 

 yet they are not produced. A good illustration of this 

 is afforded by the feather-hyacinth, Hyacinthus comosus, 

 in which the flowers are almost entirely suppressed, 

 while the pedicels are inordinately increased in number, 

 and their colour heightened. Something similar occurs 

 in several allied species, and in Bowiea volubilis. The 

 wig plant (Rhus Cotinus) affords another illustration of 

 the same thing. Some tendrils also owe their appear- 

 ance to the absence of flowers, being modified peduncles; 

 proofs of this may frequently be met with in the case 

 of the vine. 



In Lamium album I have seen one of the verticil- 

 lasters on one side of the stem completely wanting, 

 the adjacent leaf being, however, as fully formed as 

 usual. 



General remarks on suppression. On comparing together 

 the various whorls of the flower in reference to sup- 

 pression, and, it may be added, to atrophy, we find 

 that these phenomena occur most rarely in the calyx, 

 more frequently in the corolla, and very often in the 

 sexual organs and seeds ; hence it would seem as if the 

 uppermost and most central organs, those most subject 

 to pressure and latest in date of development formed, 

 that is, when the formative energies of the plant are 

 most liable to be exhausted are the most prone to be 

 suppressed or arrested in their development. When 

 the plants in which these occurrences happen most 

 frequently are compared together, it may be seen that 

 partial or entire suppression of the floral envelopes, 

 calyx, and corolla, is far more commonly met with in 

 the polypetalous and hypogynous gi'oups than in the 

 gamopetalous or epigynous series. 



The orders in which suppression (speaking generally) 

 occurs most often as a teratological occurrence are the 



