he 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 Melicoq[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]

[Illustration: 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 _Umbelliferae_.[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_, Roeper in _Euphorbia palustris_.[111]

=Lateral foliar prolification of the inflorescence= is of more common
occurrence than th