PROLIFICATION OF THE FLOWER. 119 
extension of the placenta into a leafy branch has been 
observed, as in Lysimachia, where in one case the pro- 
longed placenta was removed and struck as a cutting.' 
In Ericacee too, the axile placenta has been seen 
ovuliferous at the base and prolonged above into a 
leafy branch.” 
Median floral prolification—This is of more frequent 
occurrence than the preceding. . The prolonged axis 
is more frequently terminated by a flower-bud than by 
a leaf-bud, though it must be remarked, that the 
lengthened and protruded stem frequently bears leaves 
upon its sides, even if it terminate in a flower, and 
thus the new growth partakes of a mixed leafy and 
floral nature. Instances of this kind have long been 
familiar to observers, and have always excited attention 
from the singularity of their appearance. In one of 
the old stained-glass windows, apparently of Dutch 
manufacture, in the Bodleian Picture Gallery at Oxford, 
is arepresentation of a Ranunculus affected with me- 
dian floral prolification.* In pinks the affection is not 
unfrequently met with. Fig. 60 shows an instance of 
the kind copied from Schotterbec. 
A singular instance of prolification in the central 
flower of one of the verticillasters of Phlomis fruticosa 
fell under my own notice; it was a case wherein the 
calyx was torn on one sidé, and one of its lobes had 
become petaloid. Between the calyx and the corolla 
were three or four spathulate, hairy, bract-like organs ; 
the corolla and stamens were unchanged ; but in place 
of the usual four-lobed ovary there was a single carpel 
with a basilar style, terminated by a forked stigma. 
Occupying the place of the other lobes of the pistil 
was an oblong woolly flower-bud, consisting of calyx, 
corolla, and stamens, but with no trace of pistil. I 
1 * Ann. Sc. Nat.,’ ser. 3, tom. ii, p. 290; and‘ Adansonia,’ iii, tab. iv; see 
also Bureau, in ‘ Bull. Soc. Bot. France,’ x, p. 191. 
2 Baillon, ‘ Adansonia,’ i, 286. 
° See also figure in ‘ Hort. Eystett. Ic. Plant. Vern.,’ fol. 15, fig. 1. 
Ranunculus asiaticus. 
