ranching of the
axis and the formation of an unwonted number of secondary buds.
Instances of this kind may be met with in willows, hazels, alders, and
other amentaceous plants. In the case of the hazel the unusual
development of male catkins sometimes coincides with an alteration in
their position, instead of being placed near the axil of a leaf; they
become terminal. Jaeger figures and describes a bunch of _Pinus
sylvestris_ bearing in one case seventy minute cones, and in another
fifty-nine. These cones preserved the same spiral arrangement among
themselves which is proper to the leaves. These latter, indeed, replaced
the strobili above.[385]

[Illustration: FIG. 181.--Increased number of male catkins in the hazel
_Corylus avellana_.]

M. Reichardt describes an analogous case in the same species, and
attributes the inordinate number of cones to a fungus (_Peridermium
pini_). In this case there were no less than 227 cones, but each one
half the size of the ordinary cones.[386]

Of a similar character is the many-headed pineapple. Among grasses such
a branching of the inflorescence is exceedingly common,--which is the
more readily understood as the normal inflorescence is in so many cases
paniculate. Cultivators have, in some instances, availed themselves of
this peculiarity, as in the Egyptian wheat or corn of abundance
(_Triticum compositum_), certain varieties of Maize, etc. Similar
exuberant growths occur in _Orchidaceae_, in _Cyperaceae_, e.g. _Carex_,
in _Restiaceae_, and indeed they may be found in any plant with a similar
form of inflorescence. In all these cases the branching begins at the
lower part of the spike, and extends from below upwards in an indefinite
manner, even although the primary inflorescence be definite.

Among the _Equisetaceae_ a similar plurality of spikes occurs often as a
result of mutilation.[387] The deviation in question might in some
instances be turned to good account, as in the _Triticum_ before
mentioned or as in the broccoli shown at fig. 182, though it must be
added that the apparent advantages are often counterpoised by some
undesirable qualities or by some circumstance which prevents us availing
ourselves of the new condition.

=Multiplication of Bulbs.=--This occurrence has been briefly alluded to
previously (see p. 84). The most curious cases are those in which one
bulb is placed on the top of another as happened in some bulbs of
_Leucoium aestivum_ described by M. Gay.[