M. Carrière[214] has described an instance wherein two apples were joined together, a larger and a smaller one; the former was directed away from the centre of the tree as usual, while the smaller one was pointed in exactly the opposite direction. The larger fruit had the customary parchment-like carpels, the smaller was destitute of them.
Sometimes the direction assumed by one flower as an abnormal occurrence is the same as that which is proper to an allied species or genus under natural circumstances; thus flowers of the vine (_Vitis_) have been met with in which the petals were spreading like a star (_fleurs avalidouires_), as in the genus _Cissus_.[215]
Morren describes a curious condition in some flowers of _Cuphea miniata_, in which the placenta protruded through an orifice in the ovary, and losing the horizontal direction became erect (figs. 113, 114). A similar occurrence happened in _Lobelia erinus_. To this condition the Belgian savant gave the name of gymnaxony.[216]
[210] The following details as to the method pursued by Mr. McNab, of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, may not be uninteresting in this place. They are from the pen of Mr. Anderson, and originally appeared in the 'Gardeners' Chronicle.'
"The mode of inducing leaders to proceed from laterals is a matter of comparatively little concern among the generality of deciduous trees, for they are often provided with subsidiary branches around the leader, at an angle of elevation scarcely less perpendicular, but the laterals of all Conifers stand, as nearly as possible, at right angles. Imagine the consternation of most people when the leader of, say, _Picea nobilis_, _P. Nordmanniana_, or _P. Lowii_ is destroyed."
In a specimen of the latter plant the leader had been mischievously destroyed, to remedy which Mr. McNab adopted means which Mr. Anderson goes on to describe. "Looking from the leader downward to the first tier of laterals, there appeared to have been a number of adventitious leaf-buds created, owing to the coronal bud being destroyed. These were allowed to plump up unmolested until the return of spring, when every one was scarified or rubbed off but the one nearest the extremity. To assist its development and restrain the action of the numerous laterals, every one was cut back in autumn, and this restraint upon the sap acted so favorably upon the incipient leader as to give it the strength and stamina of the original leader, so that nothing detrimental was evident twelve months after the accident had happened, and only a practical eye could detect that there had been any mishap at all. This beautifully simple process saved the baby tree.