484 MR. M. T. MASTERS ON AXILLARY PROLIFICATION IN FLOWERS, 



ill a more or less petal-like condition ; bnt it far more frequently happens that the stamen 

 is entirely suppressed, the adventitious bud supplying its place ; thus was it in the 

 Dianthus, a figure of which accompanies this paper (PL LIV. fig. 1) *. 



The pistil, too, is necessarily subjected to very grave alterations when affected with 

 this malformation. It is separated into its constituent carpels ; and these assume a leaf- 

 like aspect, and are in the great majority of instances destitute of ovules. Indeed, 

 virescence or chloranthy is very intimately connected with this aberration, as might have 

 been anticipated ; for if the parts of the flower assume more or less of the condition of 

 stem-leaves or bracts, it is quite natural to expect that they will partake likewise of 

 the attributes of leaves, even at the expense of their own peculiar functions. 



It occasionally happens that an adventitious bud arises from, the axil of a monocar- 

 pellary pistil. This takes place sometimes in Leguminosce, and seems to have been more 

 frequently met with in Trifolium repens than in other plants. The species named is, as 

 is well known, particularly subject to a reversion of the outer whorls of the flower to 

 leaves, and even to a leaf-like condition of the pistil. There are on record instances 

 wherein a leaf-bud has been placed in the axil of a more or less leaf-like carpel ; while 

 at other times a second imperfect carpel has been met with in the axil of the first f. I 

 have myself seen numerous imperfectly developed cases of this kind. 



It may be asked whether such cases are not more properly referable to central 

 prolification — whether the axis is not in such flowers terminated by two, rather than by 

 one carpel ? It is, however, generally admitted by morphologists that the solitary carpel 

 of Leguminos(B is not terminal, but is the sole existing member of a whorl of carpels, all 

 the other members of which are suppressed as a general rule, though exceptional instances 

 of the presence of two and even of five carpels have been described %. 



Again, the adventitious bud or carpel is placed, not laterally to the primary one, or 

 opposite to it, on the same level, but slightly higher up — in fact, in the axil of the 

 primary carpellary leaf. Grifiith figures and describes § an instance of the kind in a 

 species of Melilotus. The stalk of the ovary is mentioned as having a sheathing base, 

 bearing in its axil a prolongation of the axis of inflorescence, in the form of a short 

 spike with hairy bracts and imperfect flowers, the latter having a well-formed calyx 

 and rudimentary petals and stamens. Grifiith infers, from this specimen, that the legume 

 is not to be considered as a terminal leaf. 



I have, in my paper on median prolification, adduced reasons for discarding the term 

 " prolification of the fruit ;" and the instances now to be commented on supply addi- 

 tional force to those reasons. A very frequent malformation in pears is one wherein a 

 second pear proceeds from the centre of the first, and even a third from the centre of 



* This Dianthus has the more interest from its similarity to the one described by Goethe, Metam. der Pflanzen. 

 cap. 16. sect. 105 ; but in that instance median prolification also existed. For my specimens I am indebted to Mr. 

 T. Moore, F.L.S. 



t Linnaea, vol. xv. p. 266. c. ic. Caspary, Schriften d. Physik.-Oek. Gesell. zu Konigsberg, Bd. ii. p. 5, tab. 3. 

 fig. 39, &c. 



X Lindley, Veg. King. p. 545 ; also Clarke on the Position of Carpels, Linn. Soc, December, 1850. 



§ Notulse, vol. i. Dicot. p. 126. Atlas, pi. xliii. 



