=Axillary prolification= is the term applied to those cases wherein one or more adventitious buds spring from the axils of one or more of the parts of the flower. Engelmann makes use of the word ecblastesis to denote the same condition. Both terms are open to the objection that they do not clearly enable us to distinguish prolification occurring within the flower from a similar state originating outside the flower, within the bracts of the inflorescence. This latter condition, called by Moquin-Tandon lateral prolification (see Prolification of the Inflorescence), is as truly axillary as that to which the name is restricted. In consequence of certain peculiarities in the structure of some flowers, to be hereafter alluded to, it is not in all cases easy to decide whether the new growth springs from the interior of the flower, or from the inflorescence beneath the flower. The accessory bud presents itself as a leaf-bud, a branch, a flower-bud, or a miniature inflorescence; it may be sessile, but is far more frequently stalked, and in more than half the number of cases it is a flower-bud or an inflorescence. There may be one or more of these buds; if two only, then they are usually placed directly opposite one to the other, on the opposite sides of the flower. It will be seen, from the appended list, that the orders and genera in which this description of adventitious growth occurs most frequently are the following:--_Cruciferae_, especially the genus _Brassica_; _Caryophyllaceae_, e.g. _Dianthus_; _Resedaceae_; _Leguminosae_, e.g. _Melilotus_, _Trifolium_, &c.; _Rosaceae_, e.g. _Rosa_, _Potentilla_, &c.; _Umbelliferae_, and _Campanulaceae_. For the most part, these are groups also peculiarly liable to central prolification. All the parts of the flower may be thus affected; but, as might have been anticipated from the foliaceous nature of the sepals, the new bud usually arises from within the axil of one of those organs. Next in frequency to the calyx, the pistil is subjected to this change--the carpels in such a case being disunited and leaf-like. The petals rank next, and lastly the stamens; these latter, indeed, are usually, but not invariably, absent, the new growth occupying their position. Hence it may well be that when such is the case, there is no real axillary prolification, but rather the substitution of a bud for a stamen. Generally, however, the position of the accessory bud is such that it may properly be referred to the axil of an undeveloped or rudimentary stamen.