112 



PRINCIPLES OF PLANT-TERATOLOGY. 



1 



bore five branches, one from each succeeding node, 

 and each of these bore a terminal cob, the stalk of 

 each cob being abnormally long. 



Again, K. Miiller describes cases in the same plant 

 in which the main shoots had been cut off, causing 

 lateral shoots to spring from the " root-stock." 



Blaringhem found that artificial torsion of the main 

 stem causes the production of a number of shoots bear- 

 ing female spikes or cobs, and he regards this as a 

 reversion to the primitive condition, for the female 

 spike of maize has all the characters of a lateral " fas- 

 ciated " inflorescence of EucMsena mexicana (Beana). 



De Vriese observed in Iccia lutea 

 njlfl / and /. carmosina long-stalked axil- 



lary out-growths bearing small ter- 

 minal bulbs ; these represented 

 abnormal elongations of the stalk 

 of the normal young axillary 

 lateral bulbs. PI. VII, fig. 3, shows 

 an onion-bulb producing fourteen 

 Fig. 32.-Tuiip. Axillary or fifteen young ones in the axils 



branch, inform of a bulb, „ , y 



bursting through sheath ot the outer scales. 



of its subtending leaf . Wirtsren describes a bulb of 

 Gagea arvensis from whose scale- 

 axils, in the absence of the terminal stem or inflorescence, 

 single flowers were produced. It has been observed 

 in L ilium cccndidum that occasionally single imperfect 

 flowers arise in the axils of foliage-leaves ; the same 

 tiring has been seen in Paradisia. 



As regards the Gymnospekms, in Gycas revoluta it is 

 very common, indeed almost a normal feature, for 

 small lateral branches to arise at intervals along the 

 main stem from among the dead leaf-bases ; these 

 have been described as adventitious, but they are 

 probably retarded axillary shoots.* 



Conclusions. — With the exception of the proliferated 

 bulbs in Leucoju?n, etc., all the cases of median pro- 

 liferation above- described are to be regarded as 



* See page 133. 



