tre
three carpellary leaves detached from one another and the other parts of
the flower, and open along their margins, where the ovules were placed.
In other similar instances in the same species of _Campanula_, the
styles were present, forming below an imperfect tube which surrounded
the adventitious bud; in another, contrary to what occurs usually in
such cases, the ovary was present in its usual position, but surmounted
by a bud of leafy scales, enclosed within the base of a tube formed by
the union of the styles. A similar relative change in the position of
the calyx and the ovary takes place when the _Compositae_ are affected
with central prolification, or even in that lesser degree of change
which merely consists in the separation and disunion of the parts of the
flower, but which in these flowers appear to be, as it were, the first
stage towards prolification. I owe to the kindness of Professor Oliver a
sketch of a species of _Rudbeckia_? showing this detachment of the calyx
from the ovary. In a monstrous _Fuchsia_ that I have had the opportunity
of recently examining, the calyx was similarly detached from the ovary
simultaneously with the extension of the axis. Here the petals were
increased in number and variously modified, the stamens also; while in
the centre and at the top of the flower, conjoined at the base with some
imperfect stamens, was a carpel open along its ovuliferous margins. Such
instances as these seem to be the first stages of a change which,
carried out more perfectly, would result in the formation of a new bud
on the extremity of the prolonged axis.

In _Orchidaceae_, among which family I have now met with several
instances of prolification, the ovary seems usually to be absent. Fig.
63 shows a prolified flower of _Orchis pyramidalis_ in which the
perianth was nearly regular, the central portions of the flower absent,
and their place supplied by a new miniature raceme. This specimen was
forwarded to me by Dr. Moore, of Glasnevin.

[Illustration: FIG. 63.--Median prolification in _Orchis pyramidalis_,
the outer segments of the perianth regular and reflexed.]

As might be expected, it very rarely happens that median prolification
occurs without some other deviation in one or more parts of the flower
being simultaneously manifested. Some of these changes have been already
mentioned, but others are commonly met with, as, for instance, the
multiplication or doubling, as it is termed, of the petal