362 
FLOWERS 
seem as if the adventitious bud were strictly a lateral and axillary production, and more- 
over that the legume itself is not strictly terminal but lateral in position ; so that I shall 
defer making any remarks upon prolification as occurring in this natural family till the 
subject of axillary prolification is treated of. In the only recorded instance that I am 
aware of. of this malformation affecting the genus Thesium, the pistil was altogether 
absent, and occupying its place was the new bud or branch. 
As might be expected, it very rarely happens that median prolification occurs without 
some other deviation, in one or more parts of the flower, being simultaneously manifested. 
Some of these changes are commonly met with, as, for instance, the multiplication 
doubling, as it is termed, of the petals; others, though less frequent 
of mor 
interest. In speaking of some of these coincident changes, I do not wish to draw any 
inferences as to the causes of these mutations, nor to say whether the prolification has 
induced the changes in question, or the reverse. Obviously there is generally some such 
relation, the accurate determination of which would demand a line of research which I 
do not feel competent to undertake. 
Fusion of two or more flowers. This is especially common in cultivated specimens of 
Digitalis purpurea ; the uppermost flowers of the raceme become fused together so as to 
form one large, regular, erect, cup-shaped corolla, to the tube of which the stamens are 
attached, in greater number than ordinary, and all of equal length ; the bracts and sepals 
are confusedly arranged on the exterior of the flower ; while in the centre, in the place 
usually occupied by the pistil, there rises a conical prolongation of the axis bearing at its 
outer or lower portion a number of open carpels, provided, it may be, with styles and ovules ; 
these enclose an inner series of scale-like bracts, from whose axils proceed more or less 
perfect florets ; so that in the most highly developed stage a perfect raceme of flowers may 
be seen to spring from the centre of a cup-shaped regular flower, whose lobes show its 
compound character. All intermediate stages of this malformation may be found iroin 
cases where there is a simple fusion of two flowers with a second verticil of carpels witnm 
the outer, up to such cases as those which have been just mentioned. Drawings oi some 
of these accompany this paper (sketch 3), and for illustrations of the most advanced 
stage of this monstrosity I refer to some illustrations of Professor Vrolik in the ' 1 «*• 
for 1816, p. 97, tab. i. & ii., and for 1844, tab. i. It is worthy of special remark, that in 
all these cases the flowers at the uppermost part of the raceme are alone affected, anc 
that, in addition to the prolification, there is fusion of two or more flowers, and regularity 
in the form of the compound corolla and stamens. 
The calyx of a prolified flower is either unchanged, or it is modified in harmony with the 
changes in the central part of the flower. If the ovary be normally superior or free from 
the calyx, then the latter is comparatively rarely changed ; for instance, in proliferous 
Pinks I have never met with any change in the calyx, except indeed in those instance 
where the floral axis is prolonged and produces from its side a successive series of sepa s, 
as in what is called theWheatear Carnation; but though these instances may be, as I bene , 
an imperfect degree of prolification, they do not affect the general truth of the above 
opinion, that the calyx is but rarely changed in a prolified flower if it be free from the 
ovary ; but that this is not a universal rule is shown by proliferous flowers of Gem 
