ds their insertion. In the
allied genus _Danae_, Webb, 'Phyt. Canar.,' p. 320, describes the
fascicles of flowers as in "crenulis brevibus ad marginem ramulorum
dispositis." Sometimes, on the other hand, _Danae_ has a fascicle of
flowers inserted on the middle of the upper surface, as in _Ruscus_.
Wigand mentions an instance in _Digitalis lutea_, where the upper part
of the stem was divided into six or seven racemes; possibly this was a
case of fasciation, but such a division of the inflorescence is by no
means uncommon in the spicate species of _Veronica_. I have also seen
it in _Plantago lanceolata_, _Reseda luteola_, _Campanula medium_,
_Epacris impressa_, and a bifurcation of the axis of the spikelet within
the outer glumes in _Lolium perenne_[69] and _Anthoxanthum odoratum_. In
the Kew Museum is preserved a cone of _Abies excelsa_,[70] dividing into
two divisions, each bearing bracts and scales. A similar thing
frequently occurs in the male catkins of _Cedrus Libani_ (fig. 25).

[Illustration: FIG. 25.--Bifurcated male inflorescence, _Cedrus
Libani_.]

This subdivision of axial organs is not unfrequently the result of some
injury or mutilation, thus Duval Jouve alludes to the frequency with
which branched stems are produced in the various species of _Equisetum_,
as a consequence of injuries to the main stem, but this is rather to be
considered as a multiplication of parts than as a subdivision of one.

[Illustration: FIG. 26.--Bifurcated leaf of _Lamium album_, &c.]

=Fission of foliar organs.=--Many leaves exhibit constantly the process
of fission, such as the _Salisburia adiantifolia_, and which is due
perhaps as much to the absence or relatively small proportion of
cellular as compared with vascular tissue, as to absolute fission. In
the same way we have laciniated leaves of the Persian lilac, _Syringa
persica_, and Moquin mentions instances in a species of _Mercurialis_
in which the leaves were deeply slashed. In _Chenopodium Quinoa_ the
leaves were so numerous and the clefts so deep, that the species was
hardly recognisable, while on a branch of _Rhus Cotinus_ observed by De
Candolle the lobes were so narrow and so fine as to give the plant the
aspect of an _Umbellifer_. Wigand ('Flora,' 1856, p. 706) speaks of the
leaves of _Dipsacus fullonum_ with bi-partite leaves; Moquin mentions
the occurrence of a leaf of an oleander bi-lobed at the summit, so as to
give the appearance of a fusion of two leaves. Stein