FASCIATION AND ALLIED PHEN03IENA. 



159 



of the cords in the axis of a pedicel is seen in the tiers of abortive Pears 

 sometimes formed one above another. In these there is no flower formed 

 at all ; but a central axial cord continually branches. The branches then 

 give rise, so to say, to fresh swollen pear-like axes, for they are entirely 

 •composed of stem-structure. (Fig. 91.) 



Floral Fascl\tion, or Multifold Flowers. — The next point to 

 be considered is the production of a "multifold " flower, as I propose to 

 <3all it, at the apex of a floral peduncle or pedicel. 



The simplest case is when one or more of the whorls acquire an 

 increase in the number of their parts. When the same number prevails 

 in the whorls, it is a " symmetrical " increase. Such often occurs in 

 flowers on a corymb of Elder-blossoms, which may range from fours to 

 sixes, fives being the normal and commonest number. Such is presum- 

 ably the result of a deficiency or superfluity of nourishment respectively, 

 which the flower disposes of in the latter case by increasing the number 

 of parts in the whorls. This is primarily eftected by the cords becoming 

 branched below. 



Such symmetrical increase appears capable of being hereditary, as in 

 Auriculas, for example. 



A simple increase in the number of petals, coupled with a restoration 

 to regularity, is seen in fig. 92 of a corolla of a Foxglove. 



Far more complicated results may follow ; and one can detect what 

 may be distinguished as a multiplication by "radial chorisis," which 

 determines an increase in the number of parts of a whorl, as in the Forget- 

 me-not known as 'Victoria,' 'Jewell,' Sec. (fig. 93), in which the petals 

 are increased to various numbers from six to more than thirty, together 

 wdth the stamens ; and, on the other hand, there is often " tangential " 

 chorisis, which gives rise to one or more aditional parts in front of one 

 another on a radial line. In many multifold flowers there is a complete 

 j amble of parts, giving the appearance of two or more flowers united, but 

 in a higgledy-piggledy sort of manner. 



Such a flower is usually described as synanthic ; but I would carefully 

 distinguish a truly synantliic flower, as described above in a Eucharis, 

 from a multifold one. In the former there is usually a loss of some one or 

 more parts, whereas in a multifold flower there is an increase in the number 

 of parts. This results from the, say, normally five cords which supply a 

 pentamerous flower bifurcating to such an extent that the calyx, corolla 

 stamens, and carpels may all be abnormally increased in number, since 

 each branch of the cord which would normally supply any one of the 

 members can supply an extra one and more of the kind respectively. 



M. Angel Gallardo, in a paper on the terminal monstrous flowers of 

 Foxglove,* show^s that it is perfectly hereditary to upwards of 50 per cent. 



In some few cases it is associated with a fasciated stem, and always 

 with \igorous conditions of growth. This implies that hypertrophy is 

 the immediate inciting cause, which, coupled with the lessened vigour in 

 the terminal growth of the stem, forces the production of a multifold 

 flower instead of the elongation ot the raceme of normal flowers. 



He selected the number of stamens to scertiiin the degrees of 



* Revue General de Botani(2Ui', vol. xiii. p. 103. 



