40 



PRINCIPLES OF PLANT-TERATOLOGY. 



recently examined there were fonr sepals, the upper- 

 most (morphologically anterior) being forked; there 

 were six petals (of which two were labella) ; the 

 column was double below, triple above. Here we see 

 more than the equivalent of one flower (for there are 

 six petals and a double or triple column), but not 

 quite the equivalent of two flowers (for there are only 

 four sepals). 



A most interesting case was that of a polyanthus 

 received from Dr. Salisbury. There were three fasciated 

 flowers on the same plant ; of these one had eleven 

 sepals, eleven petals, nine stamens, and one ovary 

 about twice the normal size and probably composed 

 of about ten carpels ; another flower was similarly 

 composed as regards calyx and corolla, but there were 

 eleven stamens and two distinct ovaries and stigmas, 

 each of the normal size ; in the third flower the fascia- 

 tion had proceeded further, and advanced stages of 

 division into two flowers had set in : there was a single 

 common calyx of eleven sepals, but otherwise two dis- 

 tinct flowers closely adpressed together, each of six 

 petals ; one with five, the other with six stamens ; and 

 each with a normal ovary (fig. 70.) 



All degrees of separation into distinct flowers are 

 seen in the various fasciated flowers which are so 

 frequently found. In that of a Canterbury bell {Gam- 

 pamda Medium) examined, the transversely-elongated 

 flower was single, but was the equivalent of four flowers, 

 about twenty members in each whorl being present ; in 

 another flower, also the equivalent of four, two had 

 become separated out. In a flower of the pheasant's-eye 

 (Narcissus poeticus) there was the equivalent of seven 

 flowers which had become nearly individualized, though 

 the members of the different whorls did not quite reach 

 the requisite numbers ; e. g. of the row of seven ovaries, 

 all coherent, the one at each end was 3-locular, an 

 adjoining one was 3-locular, but the remaining four were 

 2-locular and much laterally compressed (fig. 71). A 

 Cypripedium was examined, of which fig. 72 shows the 



