r. T. Moore.

[Illustration: FIG. 66.--Flower of _Dianthus_ sp., calyx removed; petals
turned down so as to show the stalked flower-buds springing from their
axils.]

The pistil, too, is necessarily subject to very grave alterations when
affected with this malformation. It is separated into its constituent
carpels; and these assume a leaf-like aspect, and are in the great
majority of instances destitute of ovules. Indeed, virescence or
chloranthy is very intimately connected with this aberration, as might
have been anticipated, for if the parts of the flower assume more or
less of the condition of stem-leaves or bracts, it is quite natural to
expect that they will partake likewise of the attributes of leaves, even
at the expense of their own peculiar functions.

It occasionally happens that an adventitious bud arises from the axil of
a monocarpellary pistil. This takes place sometimes in _Leguminosae_, and
seems to have been more frequently met with in _Trifolium repens_ than
in other plants. The species named is, as is well known, particularly
subject to a reversion of the outer whorls of the flower to leaves, and
even to a leaf-like condition of the pistil. There are on record
instances wherein a leaf-bud has been placed in the axil of a more or
less leaf-like carpel; while at other times a second imperfect carpel
has been met with in the axil of the first.[140] I have myself seen
numerous imperfectly developed cases of this kind.

It may be asked whether such cases are not more properly referable to
central prolification--whether the axis is not in such flowers
terminated by two, rather than by one carpel? It is, however, generally
admitted by morphologists that the solitary carpel of _Leguminosae_ is
not terminal, but is the sole existing member of a whorl of carpels, all
the other members of which are suppressed as a general rule, though
exceptional instances of the presence of two and even of five carpels
have been described.[141]

Again, the adventitious bud or carpel is placed, not laterally to the
primary one, or opposite to it, on the same level, but slightly higher
up--in fact, in the axil of the primary carpellary leaf. Griffith
figures and describes[142] an instance of the kind in a species of
_Melilotus_. The stalk of the ovary is mentioned as having a sheathing
base, bearing in its axil a prolongation of the axis of inflorescence,
in the form of a short spike with hairy bracts and imperfect flowers,