486 MR. M. T. MASTERS ON AXILLARY PROLIFICATION IN FLOWERS. 



ordinary phenomenon is described ; but, in reference to it, I may cite the opinion of 

 Prof. Alex. Brann, of Berlin, who states that he has read the memoir of Sig. Tenore with 

 astonishment and incredulity : " His idea of the transformation of a ripe fruit, provided 

 with seeds, seems quite inadixdssible ; and the application which he makes of it to 

 N. Lotus, which has stolons like the Strawberry, is surely inexact : he may have con- 

 founded with N. alba, a different species which bore stolons, or he may have seen a 

 chloranthy of N. alba, wdth metamorphosis of the pistil into a foliar bud ; but then the 

 flower would not be normal, still less would the metamorphosis have been preceded by 

 the formation of a ripe fruit " *. 



Tetragonia expansa has been mentioned frequently as the subject of a similar adven- 

 titious development. M. Clos has, however, shown that there is no real proMcation in 

 this plant, or, at least, no axillary prolification, strictly speaking t- 



The specimens that I have examined in Sir W. Hooker's herbarium differ in some 

 m.easure from those described by M. Clos ; and hence, as considerable interest is attached 

 to this plant, I have deemed it advisable to speak of it here at some length. 



Prof. Oliver has directed my attention to the earliest notice of this plant, and of its 

 peculiar growth, in a catalogue of plants published by Pallas %. The eminent Russian 

 naturalist has figured and described the plant under the name of Demiclovia tetrago- 

 noides, and seems to have had juster notions of the sti'ucture of this flower than other 

 more recent botanists. I shaU extract such portions of his description as are necessary 

 for the elucidation of the nature of the fruit, and of the adventitious growth attached to 

 it ; and intercalate the observations of other botanists, as well as the results of my own 

 examination. Pallas correctly describes the flowers as being placed on short stalks, 

 while other authors describe them as sessile. In truth, the length and thickness of the 

 flower-stalk are subject to considerable variation in different specimens. M. Clos says 

 that the flower-stalk becomes gradually blended with the base of the fruit; and this 

 is usually, though by no means universally, the case. Moreover, in some allied species, 

 particularly in T. implexicoma, the flowers are borne on long slender stalks, which do 

 not pass by such insensible gradations into the base of the fruit. Pallas likewise men- 

 tions the fact that there are sometimes two flowers in the axil of one leaf, especially 

 towards the upper part of the stem ; and I have seen instances where there were three 

 flowers in this situation. In such cases, it is the uppermost flower that is affected 

 in the manner hereinafter mentioned. In speaking of the flower, Pallas thus proceeds : — 

 " Receptaculum cartilagineum, inverse conicum, compressiusculum, coronatum spinis 

 quatuor vel quinque patentibus, et versus pedunculum, ramentis duo oppositis, minimis, 

 sub-barbatis, notatum." Omitting such portions of the description as are not relevant 

 to our present purpose, we come to the following passage : — " E superioribus pericarpiis 

 (non omnibus), ad ramenta, prodeunt flores secundarii minores, &c." Here, then, we 



* Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. vol. v., and ' Ueber Polyembryonie xind Keimung von Ccelobogyne.' For a figure and descrip- 

 tion of indubitable axillary prolification in the flovrer of a cultivated sp. of Nymphcea, see Gard. Chron. August 18, 

 1855. 



t Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. 1855. 



X Pallas, Enum. Plant. Hort. Demidof., Appendix, Petrop. 1781, c.ic. 



