MR. M. T. MASTERS ON PROLIFICATION IN FLOWERS. 365 



flower the pistil is altogether absent, and a flower-bnd occupies its j)lace at the summit 

 of a prolonged axis, quite detached from the calyx *. 



When a flower with the ovary naturally inferior or adherent to the calyx becomes pro- 

 lified, a change in the relative position of the calyx and ovary almost necessarily takes 

 place, the latter becoming superior or detached from the calyx ; this has been already 

 alluded to in JJmhelliferce. I have recently found an instance in a species of Campanula, 

 where the calyx was free, the corolla double, the stamens with petaloid filaments, and in 

 the place of the pistil there was a bud consisting of several series of green bracts, 

 arranged in threes and enclosing quite in the centre three carpellary leaves detached from 

 one another and the other parts of the flower, and open along their margins, where the 

 ovules were placed (sketch 6) t- A similar relative change in the position of the calyx 

 and the ovary takes place when the Composite are aiJected with central prolification, or 

 even in that lesser degree of change which merely consists in the separation and disunion 

 of the parts of the flower, but which in these flowers appears to be, as it were, the fii'st 

 stage towards prolification. I owe to the kindness of Professor Oliver a sketch of a 

 species of Rudbeckia ? showing this detachment of the calyx from the ovary. In a 

 monstrous Fuchsia that I have had the opportunity of recently examining, the calyx 

 was similarly detached from the ovary simultaneously with the extension of the axis. 

 Here the petals were increased in number and variously modified, the stamens also ; 

 while in the centre and at the top of the flower, conjoined at the base with some imper- 

 fect stamens, was a carpel open along its ovuliferous margins (sketch 7). It appears to 

 me that such instances as these are really the first stages of a change which, carried 

 out more perfectly, would result in the formation of a new bud on the extremity of the 

 prolonged axis. 



Intra-carpellary 'Prolification. — Hitherto those instances have been considered in 

 which either the carpels were absent, or the new bud proceeded from between the carpels. 

 There is also an interesting class of cases where the prolification is strictly infra-c&v- 

 pellary ; the axis is so slightly prolonged that it does not protrude beyond the carpels, 

 does not separate them in any way, but is whoUy enclosed Avithin their cavity. Doubtless 

 in many cases this is merely a less perfect development of that change in which the axis 

 protrudes beyond the carpels. This intra-carpellary prolification occurs most frequently 

 in plants having a free central placenta, though it is not confined to them, as it is recorded 

 among Boraginecs. A remarkable instance of this is described by Mr. H. C. Watson in 

 the first volume of the ' Botanical Gazette,' p. 88. In this specimen a raceme of small 

 flowers was inclvided within the enlarged pericarp of a species of Anchusa. But the most 

 curious instances of this form of prolification are those which are met with among Pr^- 

 mulace<B and other orders with a free central placenta. 



Duchartre, in his memoir on the " Organogeny of Plants " with a free central placenta, 



* Reissek, Linnsea, vol. xvii. 1843. 



f Since this paper was read, I have met with other similar instances in the same species of Campamda : in one of 

 these the styles were present, forming below an imperfect tube which surrounded the adventitious bud (fig. 6 •■) ; in 

 another, contrary to what occurs usually in such cases, the ovary was present in its usual position, but surmounted by 

 a bud of leafy scales, enclosed within the base of a tube formed by the union of the styles (fig. 6 ''). 



