210 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [SEPTEMBER 
phenomena, namely, by Mr. Masters, who in his Vegetadle Teratology, p- 
148, gives Lepidium in a rather long list of genera, in which axillary 
prolification has been noted. However, this mention is accompanied by 
no details whatever, except that the prolification arose from the axils 
of the petals and stamens, while even the species is not stated upon 
which the observation had been made. The present case seems there- 
fore worthy of record. 
Unfortunately here, as in many cases of monstrosities, it is the 
mature plant and not its developmental stage which is known to us. 
Although it is possible to trace the varying malformations in the suc- 
cessive flowers of a given centripetal inflorescence, it is quite impossi- 
ble to assume that the upper flowers represent the early stages through 
which the lower ones have passed, for often the modifications are very 
different in kind. However, in the absence of what might pass as 
developmental series, there is no better method open than to describe 
the successive flowers of a raceme, beginning at the lowest where the 
members are fully grown. The lowest flower in one of the teratological 
racemes is shown in fig.z. From a, the axis of the raceme, the pedi- 
cel (4) diverges at a considerable angle and bears, at about the usual 
distance from the axis, the 4-membered calyx (c). Opposite the dorsal 
and ventral sepals are borne two stamens, each doubtless representing 
a pair of the longer stamens in the theoretical tetradynamous andre- 
cium. Of the lateral sepals one is empty, and the other bears in its 
axil a very rudimentary flower (e), which, itself scarcely larger than @ 
stamen, is slender-pedicelled and possesses rudiments of three sepals, 
two stamens, and an ovary. This is, of course, a clear case of 
ecblastesis or budding from the axil of a floral member, for it is quite 
impossible to regard this little flower, with its clearly marked phyllome 
and caulome, as any modification of a stamen or petal. 
From the center of the main flower, and quite continuous with its 
axis, springs what is evidently a stipitate elongated gyncecium (f) of 
somewhat irregular clavate form, bearing at the tip a small stigma, and 
showing upon the surfaces indication of the limits of the two carpels- 
fig. 2 represents the gyncecium with one valve removed. An ovule 
is borne upon each side, further demonstrating the gyncecial nature of 
the organ, and at the base of the capsule may be seen a very rudi- 
mentary flower, similar to the one borne in the axil of the sepal below, 
except that its diminutive calyx appears to have only two sepals instead 
of three. As this little flower is borne within and at the very base of 
