PROLIFICATION OF THE FLOWER. 125 
Not only are the carpels thus frequently separated 
one from the other by the prolonged axis, but they 
undergo commonly a still further change in becoming 
more or less completely foliaceous, as in the Daucus 
just mentioned, where the carpels were prolonged into 
two lance- shaped leaves, whose margins in some cases 
were shehtly incurved at the apex, “forcibly calling to 
mind the long ‘‘ beaks” that some Umbelliferous 
genera have terminating their fruits—for instance, 
Scandix. Dr. Norman, in the fourth series of the 
‘ Annales des Sciences,’ vol. ix, has described a prolifi- 
cation of the flower of Anchusa ochroleuca, 1 which 
the pistil consisted of two leaves, situated antero-pos- 
teriorly on a long internode, ae a small terminal 
flower-bud between them ; and numerous similar in- 
stances might be cited. 
In this ‘place may also be noticed those imstances 
wherein the placenta elongates so much that the peri- 
carp becomes ruptured to allow of the protrusion of 
the placenta, altnough this prolongation is not attended 
by the formation of new buds. Cases of this kind 
occurring in Melastoma and Solanwm have been put on 
record by M. Alph. de Candolle.' This is a -change 
analogous with that which occurs in some species of 
Leontice or Caulophyllum, as commented on by Robert 
Brown. See ‘ Miscellaneous Botanical Works’ of this 
author, Ray Society, vol. 1, p. 359. 
If the pistil be apocarpous, and the carpels arranged 
spirally on an elevated thalamus, it then frequently 
happens that the carpels, especially the upper ones, 
shows how each of these ribs is divided at the vascular rim, and the 
uppermost row shows their distribution above the rim. From this it 
will be seen that six of the calycine ribs divide into three branches, one 
prolonged upwards as a lateral or median rib into the carpellary leaf, 
the other running horizontally to joi with similar branches sent out 
. from the neighbouring rib; the four intermediate calycine ribs divide 
into two branches only, which join the side branches of the first men- 
tioned, but have no direct upward prolongation into the carpel. The 
ten ridges are placed opposite to the sepals and petals. 
' «Neue Denkschriften der allgemeine Schweizerischen Gesellschaft,’ 
band 5, 1841, tab. 2. 
