prolified

In the prolified flowers belonging to the latter group, the sepals, if not actually uncombined, are only united for a short distance.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

When a flower with the ovary naturally inferior or adherent to the calyx becomes prolified, a change in the relative position of the calyx and ovary almost necessarily takes place, the latter becoming superior or detached from the calyx; this has been already alluded to in

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

_Campanulaceæ_, _Compositæ_, &c. As to the corolla, it was long since noticed that prolification was especially liable to occur in double flowers; indeed, Dr. Hill, who published a treatise on this subject, setting forth the method of artificially producing prolified flowers, deemed the doubling to be an almost necessary precursor of prolification; [128] but, though frequently so, it is not invariably the case that the flower so affected is double -- _e. g.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

The calyx of a prolified flower is either unchanged, or it is modified in harmony with the changes in the central part of the flower.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

This is borne out by the frequency with which apostasis, or the separation of the floral whorls one from another, to a greater degree than usual, is met with in prolified flowers.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

If the pistil be normally syncarpous, its constituent carpels, if present at all in the prolified flower, become disjoined one from the other to allow of the passage between them of the prolonged axis; thus in some malformed flowers of _Daucus Carota_ gathered in Switzerland

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

Some specimens of _Geum rivale_ (a plant very liable to become prolified) in my possession show this very clearly.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

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.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

The reason for this may be sought for in the lengthening of the floral axis, so common in prolified flowers -- a condition the reverse of that which happens in the case of definite inflorescence.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters

Now, in prolified flowers the functions and, to a considerable extent, the appearance of a leaf-bud or of a branch are assumed, and with them the tendency to grow in length is developed.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters