FORKING AND FASCIATION. 



55 



An instance in which an indefinite number of flowers 

 is so formed is perhaps afforded by the "rogue " roses 

 so common in gardens. The carpels become enlarged, 

 virescent, and superior in position, and assume the 

 role of a common calyx for the secondary flowers 

 which are formed all around on the outside of them, 

 this calyx becoming, for the purpose, orientated in 

 an inverse direction. The strong centrifugal growth 

 taking place causes many of the secondary flowers 

 to be pressed outwards and completely inverted (figs. 

 80 and 81). The calyx, corolla, and many of the 



Fig. 81. — Rosa centifoliob (Garden Rose). Longitudinal section of a 

 small portion of a " rogue" rose, snowing one of the inverted 

 secondary flowers (fi 2 ). st. and cp, stamens and carpels of primary- 

 flower. 



stamens of the mother-flower remain unaltered. On 

 sectioning the stalk just below the flower there was 

 found a ring of bundles with inversed orientation sur- 

 rounding a central cavity lined by an epidermis, i. e. the 

 typical structure of ring-fasciation ; at the periphery 

 of the pith were other small inverted cylinders repre- 

 senting probably the secondary dichotomies. 



There is a curious condition of the flowering currant 

 (Bibes smiguineum) in which each flower breaks up 

 into a number of closely-compacted flowers, the parts 

 of each of which are greatly multiplied and the majority 

 changed into small petaloicl organs. It may come under 

 this heading. 



