4.60 ABORTION 
De Candolle,' from a consideration of Strelitzia juncea, 
in which the petiole alone is developed, was led to the 
inference that in many monocotyledonous plants the 
blade of the leaf was never developed, the portion 
present being the sheath or stalk, unprovided with 
limb. The correctness of this inference is shown, 
amongst other things, by the occasional presence of a 
leaf-blade in Strelitzia juncea itself. 
Occasionally the laminar portions of the leaf are 
completely wanting, leaving only the main ribs, as in 
the case of Berberis, while the adjoining figure (fig. 215) 
represents an instance of a cabbage wherein the inner- 

Fig. 215.—Inner leaves of cabbage reduced to their midribs. 
most leaves are represented by thick fleshy cylindrical 
bodies corresponding to the midribs of the ordinary 
leaves. There is in cultivation a variety of the cabbage 
which constantly presents this peculiarity. 
The suppression of one or more leaflets of a com- 
pound leaf has already been referred to at p. 396. 
Abortion of the perianth, calyx, and corolla.—Lllustrations 
of partial development in these organs are not rare, 
under ordinary circumstances, as for instance the 
‘‘ obsolete” calyx of Umbellifers. In the cauliflower the 
branches of the inflorescence are contracted in length, 
while their succulence is much increased; at their 
1 “Org. Veget.,’ i, p. 286. 
