W. C. Worsdell 
1 2 
a longer or shorter series of such points constituting a line, with 
the result that great disturbances ensue, owing to the impossibility 
of normal uniform growth expansion in such a system.” Again he 
says : “ A growing system might evidently have one such centre or 
more than one. One is the simplest case, and as a matter of 
observation is the general rule ; on the other hand, the case of 
multiple growth-centres is included under the botanical title of 
fasciation phenomena." 
There is a phenomenon known to students of psychology as 
“ multiple personality” 1 in which, the normal and single controlling 
and directing conscious-centre in the brain becoming deranged, and 
the organism as a whole thus thrown, as it were, off its balance, a 
number of other subsidiary centres of consciousness assert them¬ 
selves alternately, usurping control of the body ; this gives rise to a 
species of madness. This appears to me an illustrative analogy for 
the case of the “fasciated ” stem under discussion. 2 
In many cases there appears to he an immense number, even 
an infinity, of growth-centres involved or latent within the organ, 
which continuously and successively assert themselves as the organ 
increases in age, so that, as in the case of a fasciated Wallflower- 
shoot lying before me, the ultimate branches produced are very 
numerous and finely subdivided, eventually becoming resolved into 
foliage leaves pure and simple ! 3 
Further,owing to the fact that in almost all “fasciations” some 
“growth-centres” are weaker than others, giving rise to branches 
which, while equal in grade or value to the others, are smaller in 
diameter, and less rapidly elongating, the curious twisting and 
torsion of the whole shoot is produced which is the almost invari¬ 
able concomitant of a “ fasciation.” 
But if now we suppose the normal single “ growth centre ” to 
be replaced by (i.e. to become segmented into) two only, and these 
two to be equally balanced as regards strength and development, 
the branching to which they give rise would be a case of pure 
dichotomy. This is the simplest form of “ fasciation.” Examples 
of it are to he seen in the leaves of Lonicera, &c., the Ooc«5-flower, 
the double spike of Plantago, the twin-headed Dandelion, which are 
described above. Church describes most interesting cases in the 
Sunflower ( Helianthus annuus), of “ strict dichotomy, which in 
1 I regard these examples, taken from other departments of 
Nature, as valuable aids in helping us to understand the 
origin of such structures as that under consideration. 
2 I am indebted to Dr. Church for reminding me of the analogy 
existing between these two sets of phenomena. 
3 Cf. the “ phyton ’’-theory. 
