ch, or they may resume the ordinary aspect
of the twigs.

[Illustration: FIG. 6.--Fasciation and spiral torsion in the stem of
_Asparagus_.]

Sometimes the flattened stem is destitute of buds, at other times, these
organs are scattered irregularly over its surface or are crowded
together in a sort of crest along the apex. When, as often happens, the
deformity is accompanied with a twisting of the branch spirally, the
buds may be placed irregularly, or in other cases along the free edge of
the spiral curve. In a specimen of _Bupleurum falcatum_ mentioned by
Moquin the spiral arrangement of the leaves was replaced by a series of
perfect whorls, each consisting of five, six, seven, or eight segments,
and there was a flower-stalk in the axil of each leaf.

When flowers are borne on these fasciated stems they are generally
altered in structure; sometimes the thalamus itself becomes more or less
fasciated or flattened, and the different organs of the flower are
arranged on an elliptical axis. A case of this nature is described by
Schlechtendal ('Bot. Zeit.,' 1857, p. 880), in _Cytisus nigricans_, and
M. Moquin-Tandon describes an instance in the vine in one flower of
which sepals, petals, stamens, and ovary were abortive, while the
receptacle was hypertrophied and fasciated, and bore on its surface a
few adventitious buds.[11] The pedicels of _Streptocarpus Rexii_ have
also been observed in a fasciated state.[12]

It has been occasionally observed that the fasciated condition is
hereditary; thus, Moquin relates that some seeds of a fasciated
_Cirsium_ reproduced the same condition in the seedlings,[13] while a
similar tendency is inherited in the case of the cockscomb (_Celosia_).

With reference to the nature of the deformity in question there is a
difference of opinion; while most authors consider it to be due to the
causes before mentioned, Moquin was of opinion that fasciation was due
to a flattening of a single stem or branch. Linnaeus, on the other hand,
considered such stems to be the result of the formation of an unusual
number of buds, the shoots resulting from which became coherent as
growth proceeded:--"_Fasciata dici solet planta cum plures caules
connascuntur, ut unus ex plurimis instar fasciae evadat et compressus_"
(Linn., 'Phil. Bot.,' 274). A similar opinion was held by J. D. Major in
a singular book entitled 'De Planta, Monstrosa, Gottorpiensi,'
Schleswig, 1665, wherein the stem of a _Chrysanthemum_ is