122 DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. PART I. 



those which have become abortive, may be some- 

 times traced to the circumstance of there having been 

 more ovules originally formed than could possibly be 

 contained, as ripened seeds, in the pericarp, which would 

 be too small to hold them all. It is easy, therefore, to. 

 conceive, that those parts of a flower which are only 

 exhibited in cases of monstrous development, may in 

 like manner have been choked by the compression of 

 some contiguous parts, which got the start of them in 

 the progress of their growth. It is equally easy to 

 comprehend, that two contiguous parts may be con- 

 stantly predisposed to graft together, long before we 

 can trace them in a detached state. We perpetually 

 see apples, peaches, and a variety of other fruits, 

 become double, owing to the great facility with which 

 their tissues graft together, when brought into close 

 contact; and we can readily imagine that the tissues 

 of two contiguous organs, whilst they are yet in their 

 nascent state, must be in a condition even still better 

 adapted for receiving this impression, than they would 

 be at a later period of their growth. 



In those cases of adhesion where the union is most 

 perfect, it generally happens that some portions have 

 necessarily become suppressed, and thus a monstrous 

 form is produced, in which the number of its parts will 

 lie between the regular number in a single flower, and 

 some multiple of that number. Now, that which is so 

 evidently the result of a natural grafting of contiguous 

 parts, in these monstrous cases, may be conceived also to 

 exist in other instances, where the same cause may have 

 been in operation, previous to the very earliest stage of 

 development to which the existence of the flower can 

 be traced. 



(119.) Supernumerary \Vhorla. It sometimes hap- 

 pens, that a supernumerary development takes place, 

 of one or more entire whorls, or of the parts of a 

 whorl. In this way, certain flowers become double ; but 

 such are not necessarily barren, as is the case where double 

 flowers have resulted from the transformation of the 



