14.0 ALTERATION OF POSITION. 
ones. In the prolified flowers belonging to the latter 
group, the sepals, if not actually uncombined, are 
only united for a short distance. The same relation- 
ship, but in a much less degree, exists in the case of 
median prolification, as that aberration is likewise 
most commonly met with in polypetalous flowers. 
Another feature of interest is the rarity with which 
axillary prolification is found in irregular gamopetalous 
blooms. It may be that the irregular and comparatively 
excessive growth in some parts of these flowers, as 
compared with others, may operate in checking any 
luxuriant tendency in other directions. 
As in the case of median prolification, plants 
having an indefinite inflorescence are more hable to 
be affected with ecblastesis than those having a 
definite one. The degree of branching of the inflo- 
rescence may be noticed, as this deformity is far 
more common in plants whose peduncles are branched 
than in those which have either a solitary flower or 
an unbranched flower-stalk. More than two thirds of 
the entire number of genera cited as the subjects of this 
malformation have a branched inflorescence of some 
form or other; and about two thirds of the cases 
occur in genera having some form of indefinite inflo- 
rescence. If individual instances could be accu- 
rately computed, the proportion would be even 
higher. 
Fully three fourths of the entire number of genera’ 
recorded as occasionally the subjects of this irregu- 
larity possess in their usual state some peculiarity of 
the thalamus; for instance, in about a third of the 
whole number of genera the thalamus is more or 
less prolonged between some or other of the floral 
whorl, e.g. Caryophyllacee,  Potentilla, Anemone, 
Dictamnus, Umbellifere, &e. About one fourth of 
the genera have numerous stamens or numerous 
carpels, or both, springing naturally from the thala- 
mus. In others (about one sixth) the thalamus is 
enlarged into a disc, or else presents one or more 
