362 MR. M. T. MASTERS ON PROLIFICATION IN FLOWERS. 



seem as if the adventitious bud were strictly a lateral and axillary production, and more- 

 over that the legume itself is not strictly terminal but lateral in position ; so that I shall 

 defer making any remarks upon prolification as occurring in this natiu-al family till the 

 subject of axUlary proKfication is treated of. In the only recorded instance that I am 

 aware of, of this malformation affecting the genus Thesium, the pistU was altogether 

 absent, and occupying its place was the new bud or branch. 



As might be expected, it very rarely happens that median prolification occm's without 

 some other deviation, in one or more parts of the flower, being simultaneously manifested. 



Some of these changes are commonly met with, as, for instance, the multiplication 

 or doubling, as it is termed, of the petals ; others, though less frequent, are of more 

 interest. In speaking of some of these coincident changes, I do not wish to draw any 

 inferences as to the causes of these mutations, nor to say whether the prolification has 

 induced the changes in question, or the reverse. Obviously there is generally some such 

 relation, the accurate determination of which would demand a line of research which I 

 do not feel competent to undertake. 



Fusion of two or more flowers. This is especially common in cultivated specimens of 

 Digitalis puriyurea ; the uppermost flowers of the raceme become fused together so as to 

 form one large, regular, erect, cup-shaped corolla, to the tube of which the stamens are 

 attached, in greater number than ordinary, and all of equal length ; the bracts and sepals 

 are confusedly arranged on the exterior of the flower ; while in the centre, in the place 

 U-SuaUy occupied by the pistil, there rises a conical prolongation of the axis bearing at its 

 outer or lower portion a number of open carpels, provided, it may be, with styles and ovules ; 

 these enclose an inner series of scale-like bracts, from whose axils proceed more or less 

 perfect florets ; so that in the most highly developed stage a perfect raceme of flowers may 

 be seen to spring from the centre of a cup-shaped regular flower, whose lobes show its 

 compound character. All intermediate stages of this malformation may be found from 

 cases where there is a simple fusion of two flowers with a second verticil of carpels within 

 the outer, up to such cases as those which have been just mentioned. Drawings of some 

 of these accompany this paper (sketch 3), and for illustrations of the most advanced 

 stage of this monstrosity I refer to some illustrations of Professor VroHk in the ' Flora ' 

 for 1846, p. 97, tab. i. & ii., and for 18M, tab. i. It is worthy of special remark, that in 

 all these cases the flowers at the uppermost part of the raceme are alone affected, and 

 that, in addition to the prolification, there is fusion of two or more flowers, and regularity 

 in the form of the compound corolla and stamens. 



The calyx of a prolified flower is either unchanged, or it is modified in harmony with the 

 changes in the central part of the flower. If the ovary be normally superior or free from 

 the calyx, then the latter is comparatively rarely changed ; for instance, in proliferous 

 Pinks I have never met with any change in the calyx, except indeed in those instances 

 where the floral axis is prolonged and produces from its side a successive series of sepals, 

 as in what is called theWheatear Carnation; but though these instances may be, as I believe, 

 an imperfect degree of prolification, they do not affect the general truth of the above 

 opinion, that the calyx is but rarely changed in a proUfied flower if it be free from the 

 ovary ; but that this is not a universal rule is shown by proliferous flowers of Geum 



