342 Dr. A. Braun on the Vegetable Individual. 



unjustly, for they present the most normal development of all 

 essential parts, dispensing with everything that is unessential, 

 and are much less inclined to malformations than the lusty 

 giants of the rich soils. Not uufrequently we find diminutive 

 specimens oi Erythraa j)ulcheUa s. ramosissima which are branch- 

 less and perfectly simple, as they terminate with a flower after 

 four or five pairs of leaves. More vigorous specimens produce 

 two branches out of the axils of the highest pair of leaves, which 

 after a single pair of leaves terminate in the same manner with 

 a flower ; and branches of the second order may be also emitted 

 from the axils of the two leaves preceding this flower ; and so 

 on. In the first order of ramification the number of flowers 

 amounts to three, in the second to seven, and so on ; in the 

 seventh, which is not uufrequently attained, it amounts to 127 ! 

 Here, if we would consider the stock or specimen as the indi- 

 vidual, and the flower as the superior termination of the vege- 

 table organism, comparable, say, to the head of the animal, this 

 variation in the number of the flowers would be as astounding 

 as if we were to learn that an animal might have 3, 7, 15, 31, 

 73, or 127 heads, according to circumstances. The same thing 

 occurs in Radiola linoides. Erigeron Canadensis, which often 

 grows to the height of a man and bears as many branches as a 

 tree, presents dwarfed specimens scarcely two inches high and 

 of a perfectly simple form*. After developing two early de- 

 ciduous cotyledons it presents about 13 leaves on the stem, 

 which are followed by a terminal capitulura of 21 involucral 

 bracts and about 34 flowers. One middle-sized specimen about 

 three feet high presented nearly 100 branches of the first order, 

 out of which branches of the succeeding orders proceeded, to- 

 gether bearing about 2000 heads, and hence (reckoning the 

 head at 34 flowers) 68,000 flowersf. 



I may here remark, that such unessential branches may be 

 separated and reared independent of their parent stem ; on 

 which fact depends propagation by artificial divisions, which is 

 so variously employed in horticulture. The most remarkable 

 case of this artificial division is recorded by Miller : in the year 

 1766-67, he obtained 500 stocks of winter rye, by dividing one 

 stock and repeating the operation three times ; these 500 stocks 

 emitted 21,109 spikes, bearing together 576,840 grains. Nature 



* Not counting the florets, which also are ])roperly so many branches. 



t Similar cases occur in most annuals. The forms of Bromus mollis 

 and racemosus with simple spikelets instead of rich panicles are well 

 known ; less known and less remarkable arc the depauperate specimens of 

 UmbellifereB with one single vmifloral umbel, some of which of Scandix 

 Pecten are in my possession. I have also specimens of Solanum nigrum, 

 one and a half inch high, with a solitary terminal flower. 



