24 THE FASCIATION OF PLANTS. 
to answer ; and I propose to put before you some observations 
upon the plants which show fasciation, and which have come 
under my own observation. 
The garden Asparagus is cited as a plant which is very 
frequently fasciated, but I do not think that it is so commonly 
met with in this condition. It has but seldom come under 
my notice, and I recollect that upwards of eleven years ago a 
gardener of some thirty years’ experience sent me a growth 
of Asparagus which was fasciated, as he had never seen one 
like it before. He had been in gardens practically all his life, 
so that it was rather surprising that he had not met with a 
fasciated stem of Asparagus before. 
I have seen several such, but not a great number. They 
are quite flattened and almost sword-like in shape. Occa- 
sionally one may meet with fasciated branches and twigs on 
trees, but I think this is not so common with hard-wooded 
subjects as with those of a different nature. 
I have seen fasciation in the Dandelion, the Crepis, the 
Hawkweed, the Daisy, and several other wild plants. In 
the garden I have met with it comparatively frequently. It 
has occurred with Primula denticulata, Primula japonica, 
and a few other flowers in single specimens. In all these 
cases the fasciation was accompanied by crowded flowers, 
caused, of course, by the fact that fasciation consists really 
of the union of a number of cells, frequently the union in a 
bud condition of cells which in an ordinary way would have 
constituted two or more stems, each bearing its own quota 
of flowers. 
I could not account for this fasciation on the ground of 
mutilation, though it may have been caused by some injury 
to the crown of the plants when in a dormant or semi-active 
condition. : 
A still more interesting point is that of the continuance 
and perpetuation of the fasciated condition of certain plants. 
This raises the question of how far accidental or intentional 
modifications may pass to the progeny of the original plant. 
It is a question for physiologists, but it must be remembered 
that the reproductive organs of plants are often buds, and 
