with ecblastesis than those
having a definite one. The degree of branching of the inflorescence may
be noticed, as this deformity is far more common in plants whose
peduncles are branched than in those which have either a solitary flower
or an unbranched flower-stalk. More than two thirds of the entire number
of genera cited as the subjects of this malformation have a branched
inflorescence of some form or other; and about two thirds of the cases
occur in genera having some form of indefinite inflorescence. If
individual instances could be accurately computed, the proportion would
be even higher.

Fully three fourths of the entire number of genera recorded as
occasionally the subjects of this irregularity possess in their usual
state some peculiarity of the thalamus; for instance, in about a third
of the whole number of genera the thalamus is more or less prolonged
between some or other of the floral whorl, e.g. _Caryophyllaceae_,
_Potentilla_, _Anemone_, _Dictamnus_, _Umbelliferae_, &c. About one
fourth of the genera have numerous stamens or numerous carpels, or both,
springing naturally from the thalamus. In others (about one sixth) the
thalamus is enlarged into a disc, or else presents one or more
glandular swellings, _e.g._ _Reseda_, _Nymphaea_, _Cruciferae_. In the
last-named family, as has been already remarked, prolification is very
common. It would be interesting to ascertain precisely what part of an
inflorescence is most liable to this affection; but as information on
this point is but rarely given in the records of these cases, I can only
give the results of my own observations, which go to show that, in a
many-flowered inflorescence, those flowers at the outside, or at the
lower portion, seem to be more frequently the subjects of this change
than those situated elsewhere. This may probably be accounted for by the
fact that the malformation is met with most generally in plants with an
indefinite form of inflorescence, and therefore the lowermost or
outermost flowers are most fully nourished; the upper flowers being in a
less advanced condition, the change is more likely to be overlooked in
them; or it may be that from the unusual luxuriance in the lower
flowers, the upper ones may be either present in their ordinary
condition, or may be (as indeed frequently happens) stunted in the size
and proportion of their several parts.

=Axillary foliar prolification of the flower.=--The formation of an
adventitious