PROLIFICATION OF THE FLOWER. 127 
assumed from the disunion of their margins somewhat 
of the appearance of leaves, other flowering branches 
proceed—axillary prolification. If, on the other hand, 
the carpels be few in number, and placed in a verticillate 
manner, the axis then generally passes upwards without 
any change in the form or position of the carpels being 
apparent, as in a proliferous columbine, figured in the 
‘Linnean Transactions,’ vol. xxiii, tab. 34, fig. 5. 
When a flower with the ovary naturally inferior or 
adherent to the calyx becomes prolified, a change in 
the relative position of the calyx and ovary almost 
necessarily takes place, the latter becoming superior 
or detached from the calyx; this has been already 
alluded to in Umbellifere. Ina species of Campanula 
examined by me, the calyx was free, the corolla double, 
the stamens with petaloid filaments, and in the place 
of the pistil there was a bud consisting of several 
series of green bracts, arranged in threes, and enclos- 
ing quite in the centre three carpellary leaves detached 
from one another and the other parts of the flower, 
and open along their margins, where the ovules were 
placed. In other similar instances in the same species 
of Campanula, the styles were present, forming below 
an imperfect tube which surrounded the adventitious 
bud; in another, contrary to what occurs usually in 
such cases, the ovary was present in its usual position, 
but surmounted by a bud of leafy scales, enclosed 
within the base of a tube formed by the union of the 
styles. A similar relative change in the position of 
the calyx and the ovary takes place when the Composite 
are affected with central prolification, or even in that 
lesser degree of change which merely consists in the 
separation and disunion of the parts of the flower, 
but which in these flowers appear to be, as it were, 
the first stage towards prolification. I owe to the 
kindness of Professor Oliver a sketch of a species of 
Rudbeckia ? showing this detachment of the calyx from 
the ovary. In a monstrous Fuchsia that I have had 
the opportunity of recently examining, the calyx was 
