PASCIATION. 15 
crest along the apex. When, as often happens, the 
deformity 1s accompanied with a twisting of the branch 
spirally, the buds may be placed irregularly, or in other 
cases along the free edge of the spiral curve. In a 
specimen of Bupleurum fale atwm mentioned by Moquin 
the spiral arrangement ‘of the leaves was replaced by 
series of perfect whorls, each consisting of five, six, 
seven, Or eight segments, and there was a flower- stalk 
in the axil of each leaf. 
When flowers are borne on these fasciated stems 
they are generally altered in structure ; sometimes the 
thalamus itself becomes more or less fasciated or flat- 
tened, and the different organs of the flower are arranged 
on an ellipticalaxis. A case of this nature is described 
by Schlechtendal (‘ Bot. Zeit.,’ 1857, p. 880), in Cytisus 
nigricans, and M. Moquin-Tandon describes an instance 
in the vine in one flower of which sepals, petals, stamens, 
and ovary were abortive, while the receptacle was hyper- 
trophied and fasciated, and bore on its surface a few 
adventitious buds." The pedicels of Sti eptocarpus Few 
have also been observed in a fasciated state.” 
It has been occasionally observed that the fasciated 
condition is hereditary; thus, Moquin relates that 
some seeds of a fasciated Cirsiwm reproduced the same 
condition in the seedlings,’ while a similar tendency 
is inherited in the case of the cockscomb (Celosia). 
With reference to the nature of the deformity in 
question there is a difference of opimion ; while most 
authors consider it to be due to the causes before men- 
tioned, Moquin was of opinion that fasciation was due 
to a flattening of a single stemor branch. Linnzeus, on 
the other hand, considered such stems to be the result 
of the formation of an unusual number of buds, the 
shoots resulting from which became coherent as growth 
proceeded :—‘‘Hasciata dict solet planta cum plures caules 
connascuntur, ut unus ex plurimis instar fascice evadat 
1 «Bull. Soc. Bot. France,’ 1860, p. 881. 
? Thid., 1861, p. 708. 
3 Thid., 1860, p. 925. 
