PROLIFICATION OF THE FLOWER. 129 
interest. Fusion of two or more flowers in association 
with prolification is especially common in cultivated 
specimens of Digitalis purpurea; the uppermost flowers 
of the raceme become fused together so as to form one 
large, regular, erect, cup-shaped corolla, to the tube 
of which the stamens are attached, in greater number 
than ordinary, and all of equal length; the bracts and 
sepals are confusedly arranged on the exterior of the 
flower; while in the centre, in the place usually occu- 
pied by the pistil, there rises a conical prolongation of 
the axis, bearing at its outer or lower portion a number 
of open carpels, provided, it may be, with styles and 
ovules; these enclose an inner series of scale-like 
bracts, from whose axils proceed more or less perfect 
florets; so that in the most highly developed stage a 
perfect raceme of flowers may be seen to spring from 
the centre of a cup-shaped regular flower, whose lobes 
show its compound character. All intermediate stages 
of this malformation may be found from cases where 
there is a simple fusion of two flowers with a second 
verticil of carpels within the outer, up to such cases 
as those which have been just mentioned. It is worthy 
of special remark, that in all these cases the flowers 
at the uppermost part of the raceme are alone affected, 
and that, in addition to the prolification, there is fusion 
of two or more flowers, and regularity in the form of 
the compound corolla and stamens. 
The calyx of a prolified flower is either unchanged, 
or it is modified in harmony with the changes in the 
central part of the flower. If the ovary be normally 
superior or free from the calyx, then the latter is com- 
paratively rarely altered; for instance, in proliferous 
pinks (Dianthus) the calyx is seldom affected, except, 
indeed, in those instances where the floral axis is pro- 
longed, and produces from its side a successive series of 
sepals, as in what 1s called the wheat-ear carnation; but 
though these instances may be, as I believe, an imper- 
fect degree of prolification, they do not affect the general 
truth of the above opinion, that the calyx, if it be free 
: 2 
