PROLIFERATION. 



9 



of the second flower above : the lowest of these leaves 

 still retained a rudimentary stigma. In other flowers 

 the petals had become separated and spirally arranged 

 on the proliferated axis. It is an interesting fact that 

 a gynophore is normally present in this species ; hence 

 there probably resides in its flower a greater natural 

 tendency to proliferate than in that of the other species. 



Velenovsky raises an important issue in connection 

 with this abnormality of Geum. The receptacle re- 

 mains unaltered ; the proliferated axis is of the same 

 character as the axis below the flower, and is obviously 

 a continuation of that axis. He points out the utter 

 improbability of the receptacle representing a cupule 

 (axial structure) intercalated between the two floral 

 axes ; it must therefore be of purely calycine nature, 

 .and this must apply to all Rosacea?. 



In several inflorescences of the wild mignonette 

 (Reseda lutea), received by Mr. Sprague of the Kew 

 Herbarium from near Southampton, every flower with- 

 out exception had a long-stalked ovary (a feature 

 reminiscent of the allied order Capparidaceae) within 

 which at the base, representing a continuation of the 

 main axis of the flower, was a small secondary flower. 

 In some of the abnormal flowers of Primula sinensis 

 described by Masters, the calyx-tube, ovary, and free 

 •central placenta became abnormally extended ; the 

 last-named structure contained, therefore, a central 

 proliferating axis of the flower. 



The flower of the pear is, under certain conditions, 

 peculiarly liable to proliferate ; as a rule, this abnor- 

 mality has been noticed only in the mature state of 

 the flower, i. e. when the fruit has become well 

 advanced in development. Owing to this fact, an 

 adequate and complete interpretation of the pheno- 

 menon is rendered difficult if not impossible, while the 

 •observation of all the earlier stages would have made 

 a solution of the problem easy. H. Hoffmann, however, 



secondary one, and the ovary of this in its turn for the calyx of the tertiary 

 flower, has been observed in the carnation. 



