PROLIFICATION OF THE FLOWER. 153 
by a whorl of five perfect leaves, beyond which, again, 
the axis was prolonged into a leafy shoot terminated 
by a flower bud, the whole constituting a remarkably 
complicated admixture of elements belonging to the 
flower, the bud, the inflorescence, and the _leaf- 
shoot.’ 
Proliferous flowers of Orchids also occasionally pre- 
sent great complexity in the arrangement of their 
parts. An instance of this kind was described by 
myself from specimens furnished by Dr. Moore, of 
Glasnevin, in the ‘Journal of the Linnean Society,’ 
vol. ix, p. 349, tabs. x, xi, and from which the follow- 
ing summary 18 extracted : 
The primary flowers were composed of five distinct 
whorls, and of at least two others less perfectly 
developed. These primary flowers did not give rise to 

Fic. 69.—Proliferous Orchis. Diagram showing the arrangement of 
the several organs in the seven outer circles of the flower. Each whorl 
is numbered, and the position of the axillary buds shown by the small 
circles. 
1 Moquin-Tandon gives the following references to cases of proliferous 
roses, but some I have not been able to verify. ‘Journ. des Sav..,’ 
22 Mai, 1679. Hottinger, ‘Hphem. Nat. Cur.,’ dec. 3, ann. 9 et 10, 
p. 249. Marchant,‘ Mem. Acad. Scienc. Paris,’ 1707, p. 488. Preussius, 
‘Ephem. Nat. Cur., cent. 7 et 8. App. p. 83. Schuster, ‘ Act. Acad. 
Nat. Cur.,’ vol. vi, p. 185. Spadoni, ‘Mem. Soe. Ital.’ t. v, p. 488. See 
also at the end of this section for numerous other references. 
