CHLORANTHY. 279 
remarks with justice that the position of the flowers 
on the axis is of importance with reference to the 
existence of chloranthy. Terminal flowers are more 
subject to it than lateral ones, and if the latter, by 
accident, become terminal, they seem peculiarly liable 
to assume a foliaceous condition. Kirschleger says, 
that im fiubus there are two sorts of chloranthy, ac- 
cording as the anomaly affects the ordinary flowering 
branches, or the leafy shoots of the year, the summits 
of which, instead of developing in the customary 
manner, terminate each in one vast and long inflor- 
escence, very loose and indeterminate, and with 
axillary flowers.’ 
On the whole, taking in consideration cases of par- 
tial frondescence, as well as those in which most of the 
parts of the flower are affected, phyllody would seem to 
be most common in the petals and carpels, least so in 
the case of the stamens and sepals. It is more common 
among polysepalous and polypetalous plants than in 
those in which the sepals or petals are united together. 
The causes assigned for these phenomena are chiefly 
those of a nature to debilitate or injure the plant; 
thus it has been frequently observed to follow the 
puncture of an insect. M. Guillard’ gives an instance 
in Stellaria media where the condition appeared to be 
due to the attacks of an insect Thrips fasciata. Still 
more commonly it arises from the attacks of parasitic 
fungi, e.g. Uredo candida, in Crucifers, Ke. 
In other cases it has been observed when the plants 
have been growing in very damp places, or in very wet 
seasons, or in the shade, or where the plant has been 
much trampled on. This happens frequently with 
Trifolium repens. The frequency with which the 
change is encountered in this particular speciés is 
very remarkable; it is difficult to see why one species 
should be so much more subject to the kind of change 
than another of nearly identical conformation. 
1 «Bull. Soc. Bot. France,’ 1862, vol. ix, p. 36, tab. i, and also p. 291. 
? Ibid., 1857, vol. iv, p. 761. 
