PROLIFICATION OF THE FLOWER. 121 
phyllacew, Rosacee ; while it is commonly met with in 
Scrophulariacee, Primulacee, and Umbelliferw. Of genera 
which seem peculiarly lable to it may be mentioned 
the following: Anemone, Ranunculus, Cheiranthus, 
Dianthus, Dictamnus, Daucus, fosa, Geum, Pyrus, 
ni Antirrhinum, Digitalis, Primula. 
A reference to the subjoined list of genera affected by 
this malformation, and the knowledge of itscomparatively 
greater frequency in some than in others of them, will 
show that 1t is more often met with in plants having an 
indefinite form of inflorescence than in those having a 
definite one. The change may affect some only, or 
the whole of the flowers constituting an inflorescence ; 
and though it is by no means a constant occurrence, it 
very frequently happens that the central or terminal 
flower in a definite imflorescence is alone affected, the 
others remaining in their ordinary condition, as in 
pinks (Dianthus); and in the indefinite forms of inflo- 
rescence, it 1s equally common that the uppermost flower 
or flowers are the most lable to be thus affected. 
In those plants which present this deviation from 
the ordinary condition with the greatest frequency, it 
often happens that the axis is normally more or less 
prolonged, either between the various whorls of the 
flower, as in the case of the gynophore, &c., or into 
the cavity of the carpels, as in the instances of free 
central placentation. To bear out this assertion, the 
following instances taken from those genera having 
definite inflorescence, and which are very commonly 
affected with prolification, may be cited; thus, in 
Anemone and Ranunculus the thalamus is prolonged to 
bear the numerous carpels; in Dianthus there is a 
marked internode separating the carpels from the other 
parts of the flower; in Primulacee central prolification 
is very common, and this is one of the orders where 
the placenta seems, from the researches of Duchartre 
and others, to be truly a production of the axis within 
the carpels in Thesiwm also, another genus with 
’ Duchartre, ‘Ann. des sc. nat.,’ 3me série, vol. ii, 1844, p. 293. 
