ITS GENERAL MODIFICATIONS. 179 



to be classified. To have morphological value, such explanation 

 should be based upon just analogies in the foliage and other 

 organs of vegetation. Whatever is true of leaves and of the 

 vegetating axis as to position of parts, mode of origin and 

 growth, division, connection, and the like, may well be true of 

 homologous organs in the flower. 



SECTION III. VARIOUS MODIFICATIONS OF THE FLOWER. 

 1. ENUMERATION OF THE KINDS. 



326. In the morphological study of flowers, these modifica- 

 tions are viewed as deviations from type. Their interpretation 

 forms no small part of the botanist's work. They may be classed 

 under the following heads : 



1. Union of members of the same circle : COALESCENCE. 



2. Union of contiguous parts of different circles : ADNATION. 



3. Inequality in size, shape, or union of members of the same 

 circle : IRREGULARITY. 



4. Non-appearance of some parts which are supposed in the 

 type : ABORTION or SUPPRESSION. 



5. Non-alternation of the members of contiguous circles : 

 ANTEPOSITION or SUPERPOSITION. 



6. Increased number of organs, either of whole circles or 

 parts of circles : AUGMENTATION or MULTIPLICATION. 



7. Outgrowths, mostly from the anterior or sometimes pos- 

 terior face of organs : ENATION. 



8. Unusual development of the torus or flower- axis. 



9. To which may be appended morphological modifications, 

 some referable to these heads and some not so, which are in 

 special relation to the act of fertilization. These are specially 

 considered in Section IV. 



327. These deviations from assumed pattern are seldom single ; 

 possibly all may coexist in the same blossom. Several of them 

 occur even in that one of the orders, the Crassulacese, which 

 most obviously exhibits the normal type throughout. 



328. Thus, Sedum (Fig. 329), with two circles of stamens, 

 being taken as the true type (324), Crassula (Fig. 307) wants 

 the circle of stamens before the petals ; Tillsea (Fig. 326) is the 

 same, but with the members symmetrically reduced from five to 

 three ; Rhodiola loses all the stamens by abortion in one half 

 the individuals and the pistils in the other, sterile rudiments 

 testifying to the abortion ; Triactina has lost two of its five 

 carpels, and the three remaining coalesce into one body up to the 



