An increased number of branches also necessarily arises when the flower-buds are replaced by leaf-buds.
Fig. 179.—Flower stalks of Bellevalia comosa, nat. size, after Morren.
Occasionally, a great increase in the number of pedicels, or flower-stalks, may be met with in conjunction with a decreased number of flowers, as in the wig-plant (Rhus Cotinus), or the feather-hyacinth (Bellevalia comosa). In these cases the supernumerary pedicels are often brightly coloured. To this condition Morren gave the name mischomany, from μἱσχος, a pedicel, a term which has not generally been adopted.[381]
Fig. 180.—Tuft of branches at the end of the inflorescence of Bellevalia comosa, enlarged after Morren.
M. Fournier[382] describes a case in the butcher's broom (Ruscus aculeatus), wherein from the axil of the minute leaf subtending the flower a secondary flattened branch proceeded.
Duchartre[383] cites the case of a hyacinth which, in addition to the usual scape, had a second smaller one by its side terminated by a solitary flower; indeed, such an occurrence is not uncommon.