Some tulips occasionally present three or four, or more, flowers on one inflorescence, but whether from a branching of the primary scape, or from the premature development of some of the axillary bulbils into flowering stems which become adherent to the primary flower-stalk, cannot, in all cases, be determined. Certainly, in some cases examined by me the latter was the case.[384]
Under this head, too, may be included those cases wherein an ordinarily spicate inflorescence becomes paniculate owing to the branching of the axis and the formation of an unwonted number of secondary buds. Instances of this kind may be met with in willows, hazels, alders, and other amentaceous plants. In the case of the hazel the unusual development of male catkins sometimes coincides with an alteration in their position, instead of being placed near the axil of a leaf; they become terminal. Jaeger figures and describes a bunch of Pinus sylvestris bearing in one case seventy minute cones, and in another fifty-nine. These cones preserved the same spiral arrangement among themselves which is proper to the leaves. These latter, indeed, replaced the strobili above.[385]
Fig. 181.—Increased number of male catkins in the hazel Corylus avellana.
M. Reichardt describes an analogous case in the same species, and attributes the inordinate number of cones to a fungus (Peridermium pini). In this case there were no less than 227 cones, but each one half the size of the ordinary cones.[386]
Of a similar character is the many-headed pineapple. Among grasses such a branching of the inflorescence is exceedingly common,—which is the more readily understood as the normal inflorescence is in so many cases paniculate. Cultivators have, in some instances, availed themselves of this peculiarity, as in the Egyptian wheat or corn of abundance (Triticum compositum), certain varieties of Maize, etc. Similar exuberant growths occur in Orchidaceæ, in Cyperaceæ, e.g. Carex, in Restiaceæ, and indeed they may be found in any plant with a similar form of inflorescence. In all these cases the branching begins at the lower part of the spike, and extends from below upwards in an indefinite manner, even although the primary inflorescence be definite.
Among the Equisetaceæ a similar plurality of spikes occurs often as a result of mutilation.[387] The deviation in question might in some instances be turned to good account, as in the Triticum before mentioned or as in the broccoli shown at fig. 182, though it must be added that the apparent advantages are often counterpoised by some undesirable qualities or by some circumstance which prevents us availing ourselves of the new condition.
Multiplication of Bulbs.—This occurrence has been briefly alluded to previously ([see p. 84]). The most curious cases are those in which one bulb is placed on the top of another as happened in some bulbs of Leucoium æstivum described by M. Gay.[388] Irmisch described a similar phenomenon in L. vernum; and Mr. Moggridge has communicated drawings of a similar formation in the same species grown in the neighbourhood of Mentone.