130 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 





buds, but, on the contrary, at least when they are formed 

 by the limb and not by the petiole, they have lateral 

 germs capable of being developed into grains of fecunda- 

 ting pollen, or ovules susceptible of fecundation. Per- 

 haps the little bulbs which are developed in the axils of 

 certain floral organs are the representatives of the axil- 

 lary buds of ordinary leaves, just as the lateral germs of 

 Bryophyllum are in ordinary leaves the representatives 

 of the ovules of carpellary leaves. We, however, find 

 examples of floral leaves furnished with buds more or 

 less developed. Roeper has mentioned examples derived 

 from Euphorbia, and has shown this fact in E .Cyparissias. 

 Choisy has observed, in the Botanic Garden of Geneva, 

 a monstrosity of the Rose, where, in the place of the 

 stamens, upon the inner border of the torus, was deve- 

 loped a verticil of floral buds irregularly formed but 

 capable of being recognised as such ; we may add to 

 these facts the proliferous Marigold, Daisy, and Scabious, 

 where the axils of the bracts of the involucrum bear 

 pedicellate floral buds. 



2d. Ordinary leaves are almost always opposite or 

 spiral, and those which form the flower are almost always 

 verticillate. Among ordinary leaves there are but very 

 few examples of real verticils (in Hippuris, and Myrio- 

 phyllum), for, in most verticils, there are only two oppo- 

 site leaves which bear buds in their axils, and the others 

 are, consequently, kinds of stipules. In the leaves of 

 the flower there are no examples of spires except in 

 carpels, disposed upon a real axis, and we have seen that 

 this structure indicates perhaps an aggregation of flowers 

 and not a single one ; let us also add here that, even 

 when the leaves of the stem are verticillate, the number 

 of each of its verticils has no more connexion with that 

 of the parts of the flower than the number of leaves of 

 each spire can have. 



