74 



The Museum Gazette 



nothing, and one after the other, beginning with the lowest, 

 the flowers and their rudimentary seed-pods perished too. 

 This is the explanation of the naked flower-stems now so 

 conspicuous and so disfiguring. 



There is, however, a good deal of detail to be con- 

 sidered. One might have supposed that a starved plant, 

 finding its means of subsistence inadequate to the production 

 of all its flowers and of any of its seeds, would simply dwindle, 

 or that it would fail to flower at all ; but no, that is not the 

 way in which Nature proceeds. The flowers of our London 

 lupins are almost as beautiful as those of the country garden. 

 It is only when the impossible is recogised as such that it is 

 accepted. The battle is continued to the very last. Now and 

 then, perhaps, it is rewarded with victory, and a seed-pod is 

 perfected. We have not, however, in the Cavendish Square 

 garden been able to find a single one. All the stems have 

 lost their heads and dropped all their flowers. It is most 

 important to note that the parts which have been abandoned 

 have not been allowed simply to wither, they have been 

 detached and dropped. The now quite useless flower-stem 

 remains naked and solitary. The plant would appear to 

 have a special aversion to retaining anything which is dead. 



The process of detachment must be studied separately as 

 regards the flower-spike and the individual flowers. It will 

 be seen, if we examine a number of flower-spikes in full 

 vigour, that in some, the very best included, the last whorls 

 of buds have become brown and dry. In this we have an 

 example of what has been called acro-sphacelus or " death of 

 the point," a very common occurrence in cases where the 

 supply of sap is feeble. The point is the part furthest from 

 the root, and is naturally the first to perish in famine. In 

 this instance a line of demarcation is very quickly formed,, 

 separation proceeds rapidly, and the end drops off. You may 

 sometimes see a single fine flower produced just under the 

 scar of the decollation, proving that the stalk remained 

 vigorous. 



