78 INDEPENDENCE OR SEPARATION OF ORGANS. 
flowered thorn, Cratequs Oxyacantha, in some blossoms 
of which the hollowed end of the peduncle still invests 

Fra. 35.—Proliferous Rose. Showing an absence of the usual dilatation 
of the flower-stalk, and other changes. 
the base of the carpels, leaving the upper portions 
detached. In apples flowers are occasionally met with 
of greater size than usual and on longer stalks, so that 
the whole looks more like a rose than an apple blossom. 
In these cases it will usually be found that the calyx 
consists of distinct sepals, without a trace of the ordi- 
nary swelling beneath the flower. The petals are often 
more numerous than usual; the stamens variously 
changed, and the carpels sometimes absent; at other 
times, as in the instance figured in the adjacent wood- 
cuts, figs. 36, 37, consisting of separate, superior ovaries, 
sometimes destitute of ovules, or, at other times, 
having two of these bodies." 
This condition accords precisely with the account 
1 «Gard. Chron.,’ 1865, p. 554; 1867, p. 599. 
