but I do not know whether it includes at an early embryonic age
rudiments of all the caudal vertebrae. In certain breeds of fowls the
comb and wattles are reduced to rudiments; in the Cochin-China breed
scarcely more than rudiments of spurs exist. With polled Suffolk
cattle, "rudiments of horns can often be felt at an early age;"[798]
and with species in a state of nature, the relatively greater
development of rudimentary organs at an early period of life is highly
characteristic of such organs. With hornless breeds of cattle and
sheep; another and singular kind of rudiment has been observed, namely,
minute dangling horns attached to the skin alone, and which are often
shed and grow again. With hornless goats, according to Desmarest,[799]
{316} the bony protuberances which properly support the horns exist as
mere rudiments.

With cultivated plants it is far from rare to find the petals, stamens,
and pistils represented by rudiments, like those observed in natural
species. So it is with the whole seed in many fruits; thus near
Astrakhan there is a grape with mere traces of seeds, "so small and
lying so near the stalk that they are not perceived in eating the
grape."[800] In certain varieties of the gourd, the tendrils, according
to Naudin, are represented by rudiments or by various monstrous
growths. In the broccoli and cauliflower the greater number of the
flowers are incapable of expansion, and include rudimentary organs. In
the Feather hyacinth (_Muscari comosum_) the upper and central flowers
are brightly coloured but rudimentary; under cultivation the tendency
to abortion travels downwards and outwards, and all the flowers become
rudimentary; but the abortive stamens and pistils are not so small in
the lower as in the upper flowers. In the _Viburnum opulus_, on the
other hand, the outer flowers naturally have their organs of
fructification in a rudimentary state, and the corolla is of large
size; under cultivation, the change spreads to the centre, and all the
flowers become affected; thus the well-known Snow-ball bush is
produced. In the Compositae, the so-called doubling of the flowers
consists in the greater development of the corolla of the central
florets, generally accompanied with some degree of sterility; and it
has been observed[801] that the progressive doubling invari