332 UNLINING, OR [BOOK i. 



separation is frequently observed in the fibres of stems ; but 

 to confine my attention to flowers, I shall just notice that the 

 single fibre which forms the base of certain stamens, produces 

 three stamens at its top in Monsonia, seven or more in 

 Melaleuca, a greater number in Hypericum segyptiacum, &c. 

 In some plants these different degrees of separation are suc- 

 cessive, so that they can be traced by the eye. In Malva 

 abutiloides, for example, we find a great number of stamens 

 developing one after the other on the outside of a cylindrical 

 column. On looking at the base of the latter we find traces 

 of five bundles opposite the petals. If a transverse section 

 of this column is made a little above the ovary, we see the 

 sections of two fibres opposite each petal. A little lower but 

 one fibre is found; higher up, on the contrary, we find a 

 great quantity. The same phenomenon is still more evident 

 in another genus of the same natural order. From the hollow 

 cylinder formed by the union of the base of the petals and 

 stamens of Pachira marginata, instead of one single stamen 

 we find that there rises one fibre or cylindrical body, which 

 soon separates into two or three parts, each of which is again 

 divided, and so on, until we come to those that carry the 

 anthers. Here we have a succession of true unlinings ; but 

 in Crucifers, and especially in Sterigma and Anchonium, the 

 large stamens offer an example of simple unlining in the full 

 meaning of the word, since they present a separation into 

 two parts only. I thought I might extend the primitive 

 meaning of the word deduplication, and consider it as syno- 

 nymous with separation, disjunction, in the same way as we 

 speak of ' doubling the pace/ ' doubling a track/ to express 

 an increase in velocity of any sort, &c. If, notwithstanding 

 this explanation, anybody should object to the word I have 

 employed, I propose Chorisis (x^pio-tj, separatio, disjunctio, 

 divisio,) to define what I have called deduplication, and the 

 adjective choristate, to signify unlined. 



" But to return to our subject, we can say that in Peganium 

 Harmala, there are two stamens opposite each petal by simple 

 deduplication, or by binary chorisis of the normal stamen, 

 or again, that there are two choristate stamens opposite each 

 petal. All these expressions mean that instead of finding 



