TO BOTANY. 4* 



In umbellate flowers, the prolificatioti is by the iri- 

 erease of the umbellulae, one simple umbellula pro- 

 ducing another, as in Cornus and Periclymenum ; 

 in this manner compound umbels will become supra- 

 decompound^ more than compounded a second time, 

 as in Selinum and Thysselinum. 



A proliferous flower is called Ffondose*, leafy, 

 when it produces leaves ; this rarely happens, but 

 instances of it have been found in Rosa, Anemone 

 and others : the other kinds of prolification are fre- 

 quent enough. 



4. MUTILATE flowers are the reverse of luxuriant. 

 Linnaeus confines the term to those flowers only that 

 want the corollae, though they ought to be furnished 

 with it; which often happens in Ipomoea, Cam- 

 panula, Ruellia, Viola, Tussilago, and Cucubalus : 

 the cause of this defect he ascribes chiefly to the 

 want of sufficient heat. 



The luxuriancy of the Calyx, mentioned in the be- 

 ginning of this chapter, is very unfrequent, but not 

 without instances ; in Dianthus Caryophyllus there 

 is a variety, in which the Squamae, scales, of the 

 calyx are so multiplied as to constitute a perfect spike 

 in a manner most singular : The Gramina, grasses, of 

 the Alps, become full by their Glumae^ husks, shooting 

 out into leaves, as in a species of the Festuca ; and 

 in Salix rosea, and Plantago rosea, the squamae of 



his meaning, by his speaking of the implction of ligulate 

 flowers separately afterwards. 



* Frons, with the Ancients, (though frequently used, in re- 

 spect to trees, in the same sense with Folium, a Leaf) implied, 

 in its proper signification^ a part of the wood of the tree with 

 the leaf; or, as we should express it, a twig with leaves; and 

 for this reason they never applied the term to the learcs of 

 herbs (which were always called Folia) but only to those of 

 trees. Linnaeus has availed himself of this old distinction to 

 make it a botanical term ; which he applies to express the cir- 

 cumstance of Palms and Filices, Ferns; in the former of 

 which the branches, and in the latter even the stem itself is 

 an actual leaf: and here again he applies it to the leafy pro* 

 litication in question, calling it Frondose, rather than Fo- 

 liaceous, for the like reason. 



