SIMPLIFICATION. 



233 



stems bear more than one flower. Mr. Weathers sent 

 a sketch of this phenomenon in the tulip " La Belle 

 Alliance " representing a main scape bearing two 

 lateral ones, of which one is axillary to one of the lower 

 foliage-leaves, the other to an upper foliage-leaf or 

 bract; but in both the peduncles of the extra flowers are 

 adnate to that of the main flower for a longer or shorter 

 distance (fig. 140). Now in T. hi flora var. afghanica 

 the same phenomenon is quite fixed and normal ; here 

 there may be as many as seven peduncles, all approxi- 

 mately equal in development and united at various 

 levels ; one of these must be the main axis and all the 

 rest axillary shoots, though it is difficult to trace all of 

 the latter to their subtending leaves. 



Other normal instances of this phenomenon are 

 frequent. In the borage (Borago), for example, the 

 flower-stalk of the terminal flower unites with that of 

 the main inflorescence-axis for a longer or shorter 

 distance. Good examples are afforded by species of 

 Solanum and Crotalaria alata. Velenovsky ascribes 

 the phenomenon in the two last-named plants to "dis- 

 placement," as there exists no outward or inward sign 

 of fusion between the two axes ; yet in Loasa papaveri- 

 folia, in which there is an equal absence of any sign 

 of fusion, he states that fusion between the two axes 

 has occurred. The true state of things probably is 

 that the fusion is so deep-seated and radical that no 

 outward or anatomical evidence therefor can any 

 longer be found, whereas those fusions, such as occur 

 in Lilium candidum, which are less deep-seated, show 

 clear evidence thereof; it is merely a question of 

 degree. It is difficult to understand how displacement 

 could occur. 



Floral axes are sometimes adnate to foliar organs. 

 Massalongo describes the occurrence of a group of 

 well-developed flowers on the midrib of the upper 

 surface of leaves of Amaranthus panicidatus (PI. LI, 

 fig. 1), and ascribes the phenomenon to an " enation " ; 

 finding no evidence, from the anatomical structure of 



