348 INCREASED NUMBER. 
tion with a decreased number of flowers, as in the 
wig-plant (Ithus Cotinws), or the feather-hyacinth 
(Bellevalia comosa). In these cases the supernumerary 



Fre. 180.—Tuft of branches at the end of the inflorescence of Belle- 
valia comosa, enlarged after Morren. 
pedicels are often brightly coloured. 'T'o this condition 
Morren gave the name mischomany, from pisyoc, a 
pedicel, a term which has not generally been adopted.’ 
M. Fournier’ describes a case in the butcher’s broom 
(Ruscus aculeatus), wherein from the axil of the mmute 
leaf subtending the flower a secondary flattened 
branch proceeded. 
Duchartre® cites the case of a hyacinth which, im 
addition to the usual scape, had a second smaller one © 
by its side terminated by a solitary flower; indeed, 
such an occurrence is not uncommon. 
Some tulips occasionally present three or four, or 
more, flowers on one inflorescence, but whether from 
a branching of the primary scape, or from the pre- 
mature development of some of the axillary bulbils into 
flowering stems which become adherent to the primary 
flower-stalk, cannot, in all cases, be determined. Cer- 
1 «Bull. Acad. Belg.,’ xvii, part ii, p. 38. 
2 * Bull. Soe. Bot. Fr.,’ vol. iv, 1857, p. 760.. 
3 [bid., vol. viii, 1861, p. 159. 
