far iNe tt Le ie 
ATROPHY. 
Unver the head of atrophy are included those cases 
wherein the organs affected are actually present, but 
in a dwarfed and stunted condition as compared with 
surrounding parts. 
The diminished size is, in such instances, obviously 
due to a partial development and to an arrest of growth 
at a certain stage, from the operation of various causes, 
either external or inherent to the organization itself. 
It may affect any part of the plant, and exists, in very 
varying degree, in different instances, being sometimes 
so shght in amount as not to preclude the exercise of 
the functions of the part; while in others, the struc- 
ture is so incomplete that the office cannot be per- 
formed. These differences depend, of course, upon 
the stage of development which the organ had reached 
when its growth was checked. For practical pur- 
poses atrophy may be distinguished from suppression 
by the fact that in the latter case a certain element 
of the flower or plant which, under ordinary circum- 
stances, is present, is entirely wanting, while, in the 
former class, it exists but in a rudimentary condition. 
Again, atrophy is to be separated from that general 
diminution in the size of the whole plant or of distinct 
parts of that plant which is comprised under the term 
“nanism.” Thus the several dwarf varieties of plants 
(var. nane), or those in which the leaves or flowers are 
smaller than usual (var. parvifolie, v. parviflore), are 
truly regarded as variations, and not as malformations 
properly so called. 
