Median prolification occurs frequently in double flowers; the axillary variety, on the other hand, is most common in flowers whose lateral organs have assumed more or less of the condition of leaves. The other coincident changes are alluded to elsewhere or do not present useful points of comparison, and may therefore be passed over.
Prolification of the inflorescence.—This consists in the formation of leaf-buds or of an undue number of flower-buds on the inflorescence. It must be distinguished from virescence, or the mere green colour of the floral organs, and from chloranthy, in which all or the greater portion of the parts of the flower are replaced by leaves. Prolification is, in fact, a formation of supernumerary buds, leafy or floral, as the case may be, these buds being sessile or stalked, the ordinary buds being not necessarily changed. Prolification of the inflorescence, like the other varieties, admits of subdivision, not only according to the foliar or floral nature of the bud, but according to its position, terminal or median and lateral.
Terminal prolification of the inflorescence, whether leafy or floral, is hardly to be looked upon in the light of a malformation[105] seeing that a similar condition is so commonly met with normally, as in Epacris, Metrosideros, Bromelia, Eucomis, &c., wherein the leafy axis projects beyond the inflorescence proper; or as in Primula imperialis, in which plant, as also in luxuriant forms of P. sinensis, tier after tier of flowers are placed in succession above the primary umbel. Nevertheless, when we meet with such conditions in plants which, under ordinary circumstances, do not manifest them, we must consider them as coming under the domain of teratology.
Median foliar prolification of the inflorescence is frequently met with in Coniferæ, and has of late attracted unwonted attention from the researches of Caspary, Baillon, and others, on the morphology of these plants. The scales and bracts of the cone in these abnormal specimens frequently afford transitional forms of the greatest value in enabling morphologists to comprehend the real nature of the floral structure. It would be irrelevant here to enter into this subject; suffice it merely to say that an examination of very numerous specimens of this kind, in the common larch and in Cryptomeria Japonica, has enabled me to verify nearly the whole of Caspary's observations. A similar prolongation of the axis occurred in some of the male catkins of Castanea vesca, each of which had a tuft of small leaves at their extremity. In the common marigold and in Lotus corniculatus I have also seen instances of this kind. Kirschleger[106] describes a tuft of leaves as occurring on the apex of the flowering spike after the maturation of the fruit in Plantago, and a similar growth frequently takes place in the common wallflower, in Antirrhinum majus, &c. In cases where a renewal of growth in the axis of inflorescence has taken place after the ripening of the fruit, the French botanists use the term recrudescence, but the growth in question by no means always occurs after the ripening of the fruit, but frequently before. Professor Braun cites the case of a specimen of Plantago lanceolata, in which the spike was surmounted by a tuft of leaves and roots, as well as a still more singular instance in Eryngium viviparum, in which not only did particular branches terminate in rosettes of leaves provided with roots, but similar growths proceeded from the heads of flowers themselves. Baron de Mélicoq[107] gives a case in Primula variabilis, in which at the top of the flower-stalk, in the centre of six flowers, was placed a complete plant in miniature, having three leaves, from the axil of one of which proceeded a rudimentary flower. Mr. W. B. Jeffries also forwarded me a polyanthus (fig. 52) in which the peduncle was surmounted by a small plant, forming a crown above the ordinary flower-stalk, just as the crown of the pineapple surmounts that fruit. A similar instance was exhibited at the Scientific Committee of the Horticultural Society on July 11th, 1868, by Mr. Wilson Saunders; the species in this case was P. cortusoides. To Mr. R. Dean I am indebted for a similar proliferous cyclamen, which seems similar to one mentioned by Schlechtendal.[108] This author alludes to an analogous circumstance in the inflorescence of Cytisus nigricans, where, however, the change was not so great as in the preceding cases. The instances just cited all occur in plants having an indefinite form of inflorescence; but the production of a tuft of leaves or of a leafy shoot above or beyond the inflorescence is not confined to plants with this habit of growth, for Jacquin figures and describes an instance of this nature in the cymose flower-stems of a Sempervivum. "Hi racemi," says he, "ultra flores producuntur in ramos, foliosos duo bifidos qui tandem trium unciarum longitudinem adepti fuerunt."[109]
Fig. 52.—Inflorescence of Polyanthus, bearing a tuft of leaves at the top of the scape intermixed with the flowers.
Median floral prolification of the inflorescence, wherein a new inflorescence projects beyond the primary one, is not uncommon in plants having their flowers arranged in close heads or umbels, as in the common wild celery and other Umbelliferæ.[110] I have also met with it in Trifolium repens, in the umbellate variety of the common primrose, and in the scarlet geranium. Engelmann cites it in Triticum repens, Roëper in Euphorbia palustris.[111]
Lateral foliar prolification of the inflorescence is of more common occurrence than the preceding. I have met with it, amongst other plants, frequently in Brassica oleracea, Pelargonium zonale, Scabiosa, Bellis, and many other composites, also in Leguminosæ, e.g. Lupinus, Trifolium, Coronilla, &c. Prof. Oliver forwarded me a specimen of Euphorbia geniculata in which, in addition to other changes, there was a series of stalked buds bearing tufts of green scales, but without any trace of stamens or pistil; these adventitious buds occurred within the ordinary involucre of the plant, between it and the stamens. The pistil was unaffected in some cases, while in some others it was entirely wanting, the gynophore being surmounted by a cup-like involucre, divided into three acutely pointed lobes, each with a midrib; these encircled a series of stalked involucels, as before, and among which were scattered a few stamens, some perfect, others partially frondescent.
In a specimen of Scrophularia nodosa examined by me one of the lateral buds on each of the cymes was represented, not by a flower, but by a tuft of leaves, the other buds being unchanged. As the inflorescence was much contracted in size, the appearance of the whole plant was greatly changed.