M. T. MASTERS 
4 SO 
Elowers borne upon indefinite inflorescences are liable to be affected with cither form of 
more frequently than those borne upon definite inflorescences. Prolification 
both varieties is also more frequently met with in branched inflorescences t lian in those 
in which the flowers are sessile; but the degree of branching seems less material, in- 
asmuch as this malformation is more commonly recorded as occurring in racemes than 
in the more branched forms of inflorescence. From the similar arrest of growth in 
length in the case of the flower, to that which occurs in the stem in the ease of definite 
inflorescence, it might have been expected that axillary prolification would be more 
frequent in plants having a cymosc inflorescence than in those whose inflorcsc nee is 
indefinite; such, however, is not the case. The reason for this may he souuht for in 
the lengthening of the floral axis, so common in prolified flowers— a condition the 
reverse of that which happens in the case of definite inflorescence. 
Median prolification occurs frequently in double flowers; the axillary variety, on the 
other hand, is most common in flowers whose lateral organs have assumed more or less 
of the condition of leaves. The other coincident changes have either been already 
sufficiently alluded to, or do not present useful points of comparison, and may therefore 
be passed over. ■ . 
The investigation of these two kinds of aberration from the usual floral arrangement 
brin-s to light many interesting facts bearing on the struct ural peculiarities of 
natural orders. On some of these I propose now to speak, premising however that 
the conclusions drawn from teratological researches, should be checked by the result, ol 
a keen scrutiny into the mode of origin and progressive growth of the various flowers 
and bvthe analogies derived from a minute and cautious comparison of one natural 
form with another 
In the genus Anemone, the supernumerary hud has been often seen to spring from 
the axil of one of the leaves of the involucre, as it is generally called If so he proh- 
fication must he elassed as lateral, and not axillary. Tins view « ; borne out by the 
analogies presented hy Ercmthis, Kigetta, and other genera. On the othc hand, there 
are ground's for considering the so-e ailed ^^^^^^^^ 
from the corolla. Xepatica, and some species of Hamadryad in wwcii i 
a tendency to become tubular, may be compared with Anemone in suppoit of tins latter 
"IS" Crneifer* seem peculiarly liable to prolification in one orothcr £ ^ varh,ie, 
When median, it usually happens that the pistil is separated into t. o £* , n ci mo 
lour, as might be expected were the ^^^J^ Tile relatLship 
suggested*. Another common change is one *hic is ju e & 
between this order and Capparidacece, inasmuch as the pistil is placea 
lengthened thalamus or gynophore. When cruciferous flowers are afeet J J^ > 
prolification from the region of the stamens, it almost always happens that h d 
Lous buds are placed on a level with the two short sta me n , J^gf* ^ 
cited in support of the hypothesis that there are normally m ^*T* ° the 
usuallv suppressed being represented in the prohhed tloweis oy 
the two that 
* Cfr. Lindl. Veg. Kingd. 3rd ed. p. Soo a. 
