134 ALTERATION OF POSITION. 
surrounding an umbel of five rays, each terminated 
by a small normally constituted flower-bud. 
The ovules of a prolified flower are either unaffected, 
or they occur in a rudimentary form, or, lastly, they 
may be present im the guise of small leaves. 
Under the term prolification of the fruit two or 
three distinct kinds of malformation appear to have 
been included. The term seems usually to be apphed 
to those cases where from the centre of one fruit a 
branch bearing leaves, flowers, or another fruit, is 
seen to project, as happens occasionally in pears. 
Now, in many instances, not only the fruit, is re- 
peated, but also the outer portions of the flower, 
which wither and fall away as the adventitious fruit 
ripens; so that at length the phenomenon of one 
fruit projecting from another is produced. It is 
obvious that this form of prolification m no wise 
differs from ordinary central prolification. Some- 
times some of the whorls of the adventitious flower 
are suppressed; thus, M. Duchartre describes some 
orange blossoms as presenting alternating series of 
stamens and pistils one above another, while the 
calyces and corollas belonging to each series of stamens 
and pistils were entirely suppressed.’ In other cases, 
doubtless, the carpellary whorl is alone repeated, the 
other whorls of the adventitious flower bemg com- 
pletely absent. 
Another condition, apparently sometimes mistaken 
for prolification of the fruit, is that in which the car- 
pellary whorl becomes multiplied; so that there is a 
second or even a third series within the outer whorl 
of carpels. If the axis be at all prolonged, then these 
whorls are separated one from the other, and produce 
in this way an appearance of prolification. This 
happens frequently in oranges, as in the variety called 
Mellarose.” 
1 * Ann. Se. Nat.,’ 1844, vol. i, p. 297. 
> Maout, ‘ Lecons Elémentaires de Botanique, vol. 11, p. 488; Ferrari, 
‘ Hesperides,’ pls. 271, 315, 405, 
