cases of this kind is recorded by Wigand in the 'Flora' for
1856, in a compound flower of _Polygonatum anceps_, in which within a
twelve-parted perianth there were twelve stamens and two pistils, one
four-celled, the other two-celled; hence it would appear as if a carpel
belonging to one flower had become united to those constituting the
pistil of the adjacent one. Among Orchids this fusion of some of the
elements of different flowers, together with the suppression of others,
is carried to such an extent as to render the real structure difficult
to decipher. Sometimes flowers of _Ophrys aranifera_, at first sight
seeming normal as to the number, and almost so as regards the
arrangement of their parts, have yet, on examination, proved to be the
result of a confluence of two flowers. Mr. Moggridge has observed
similar phenomena in the same species at Mentone.

Sometimes the fusion affects flowers belonging to different branches of
the same inflorescence, as in _Centranthus ruber_, described by
Buchenau, 'Flora,' 1857, p. 293, and even a blossom of one generation of
axes may be united with a flower belonging to another generation. Thus
M. Michalet[45] speaks of a case wherein the terminal flower of
_Betonica alopecuros_ was affected with Peloria, and fused with an
adjacent one belonging to a secondary axis of inflorescence, and not yet
expanded. This latter flower had no calyx, but in its place were three
bracts, surrounding the corolla; this again was united to the calyx of
the terminal bloom in a most singular manner, the limb of the corolla
and that of the calyx being so joined one to the other as to form but a
single tube. It is not uncommon, as has been before stated, to find two
corollas enclosed within one calyx, but this is probably the only
recorded instance of the fusion of the calyx and corolla of two
different flowers belonging to two different axes.

From the preceding details, as well as from others which it is not
necessary to give in this place, it would appear that synanthy is more
liable to occur where the flowers are naturally crowded together[46]
than where they are remote; so too, the upper or younger portions of the
inflorescence are those most subject to this change. In like manner the
derangements consequent on the coalescence of flowers are often more
grave in the central organs, which are most exposed to pressure, and
have the least opportunities of resisting the effects of that agency,
than they