APPENDIX. 



DOUBLE FLOWEES.i 



In ordinaiy language, the epithet double flowers is applied to flowers 

 of very varied structural conformation. The most common conditions 

 rendering a flower double, in the popular acceptation of the term, are 

 substitutions of petals or petal-like bodies for stamens and pistils, one 

 or both. (See Petalody, p. 283.) Another very common mode of 

 doubling is brought about by a real or apparent augmentation in the 

 number of petals, as by miiltiplication, fission, or chorisis. (See pp. 

 66, 343, 371, 376.) Sometimes even the receptacle of the flower within 

 the outer corolla divides, each subdivision becoming the centre of a new 

 series of petals, as in some very luxuriant camellias and anemones. 

 The isolation of organs which, under ordinary circumstances, are united 

 together, is another circumstance, giving rise, in popular parlance, to 

 the use of the term double flower. (See Adesmy, Solution, pp. 58, 

 76, 82.) Prolification is another very frequent occurrence in the case 

 of these flowers, while still other forms arise from laciniation of the 

 petals, or from the formation of excrescences from the petals or stamens, 

 in the form of supplementary petal-like lobes. (See Enation, p. 443.) 



As these matters are all treated of under their respective headings, 

 it is not necessary to allude to them again in detail. It may be well, 

 however, to allude, in general terms, to the causes which have been 

 assigned by various writers for their formation, and to the means which 

 have been adopted by practical experimenters to secure the production 

 of the flowers often so much esteemed by the florfst. It must be 

 admitted that, in spite of all that has been written on the subject, 

 but vei-y little is known about these matters. In the case of the stock 

 the following means have been adopted by cultivators in order to 



' This appendix forms a portion of a paper published in the ' Pro- 

 ceedings of the International Botanical Congress,' London, 1866, p. 127, 

 and which it has Wen deemed advisable to reproduce with sundry 

 additions and modifications. 



