200 THE FLOWER. 



366. The case of stamens in a cluster before the petals is a 

 complication of either of the foregoing with a peculiar kind of 

 multiplication, termed deduplication or chorisis. (372.) 



7. INCREASED NUMBER OF PARTS. 



367. Augmentation in the number of floral members is one 

 of the commonest modifications of the type. It occurs in two 

 ways : 1st, by an increased number of circles or turns of spirals 

 in the flower, which is Regular Multiplication ; 2d, by the pro- 

 duction of two or three or of many organs in the normal place 

 of one, Chorisis or Deduplication. The first does not alter the 

 normal symmetry of the blossom, although it may render it dif- 

 ficult or impossible to trace or demonstrate it. The second 

 apparently disturbs, or at least disguises, floral symmetry. 

 Either may be definite, or of a constant and comparatively 

 small number ; or indefinite, when too numerous for ready 

 counting, or inconstant, as the higher numbers are apt to be. 



368. Regular Multiplication, or Augmentation of floral circles 

 or spirals, may affect any or all the four organs, but most com- 

 monly the andrcecium. When the perianth is much increased 

 in the number of its members, the distinction between calyx and 

 corolla, or even between bracts and corolla, is apt to disappear, 

 as in most Cactaceous flowers (Fig. 317), Nelumbium, Calycan- 

 thus, &c. In these and similar cases, the members of the perianth 

 are prone to take a spiral instead of cyclic arrangement ; and this 



and in obdiplostemony. Along with the lack of clear analogy to support 

 St. Hilaire's hypothesis of transverse deduplication, the similar orientation 

 of the vascular bundles in the petal and the stamen before it must, as 

 Celakowsky insists, be good evidence that these represent independent 

 leaves, and not superposed portions of one. 



The main objection to the second hypothesis (that of a suppressed 

 circle outside of the antipetalous stamens) is that this missing circle, 

 whether of petals or stamens, is not actually met with in any nearly re- 

 lated forms (for in Monsonia the fifteen stamens are otherwise explained) ; 

 also that there are transitions, as above mentioned, between obdiplostemony 

 and direct diplostemony. To Braun's theory that the glands behind the 

 antisepalous stamens in true Geraniaceae answer to suppressed phylla, 

 Eichler objects that these are present behind all ten stamens in Oxalideae ; 

 also that all are wanting when the office of nectar-secretion, which they sub- 

 serve, is undertaken by some other part of the flower, as by the calyx-spur 

 in Pelargonium and Tropaeolum. The first objection is forcible : the second 

 mixes morphological considerations with functional, and is inconclusive. 

 Abortive organs, preserved for their utility as nectaries, might totally dis- 

 appear when rendered useless by a different provision for the same function. 



