Lhe Life of the Plant 219 
Every part of the plant has, when young, the power of. 
adhering to others in its growth, and does actually do so 
whenever its formative tissue or cambium comes into con-’ 
tact with that of other parts. This fact, so important for 
the processes of grafting, budding, &c., is also of some 
importance in this connection, because very peculiar 
malformations often result from such adhesions in growth 
between neighbouring plants or parts of plants. It is very 
common, for instance, to find the pinne of Gledt¢schia tria- 
canthos united with one another in such a manner that the 
bipinnate leaf becomes a simply pinnate or even a simple - 
leaf. Separations of organs which are normally united in 
their growth also sometimes occur. If, for example, a mal- 
low is made by prolonged cultivation to become double, 
this change begins by the filaments which were previously 
united into a single bundle separating from one another, 
each stamen then becoming transformed into one or more 
petals. eae 
Of much greater importance than changes in the — 
number, size, and position of the parts of plants, are those 
which relate to their form. The most common and in-. 
teresting change of this kind in the stem is the phenomenon 
known as /asceatzon. This consists either in the stem be- 
coming flattened, and hence assuming a ribbon-like form, - 
or in its beginning to divide irregularly into a number of 
branches, which at once coalesce laterally with the main 
branch, |or from the cohesion of a number of buds]. Fasci- 
ation occurs especially im ground that has been excessively | 
manured, and hence very commonly in cultivated plants. 
In them it is often inherited through the seeds, as, for ex- 
ample, in the garden-plant known as ‘coxcomb,’ Ceosta 
cristata, and in the cauliflower, in which the thickened 
fleshy branches of the inflorescence have coalesced to form 
a head or mass covered in the upper part with abortive 
flowers. As in the last case, abortion is almost always asso- _ 
ciated with fasciation. For while the fasciated part of the 
