The petals, under such circumstances, often exist in the guise of sepals or of small leaves; and instances are recorded wherein the place of the calyx and corolla was supplied by a succession of overlapping green scales, from the axils of which the new buds arose. M. Germain de Saint Pierre records such a case in _Trifolium repens_, wherein the calyx and corolla were replaced by overlapping scales, in the axils of each one of which arose a flower; above there was a row of stamens, and in the centre a pistil in the guise of a trifoliate leaf.[139] Such instances seem to afford an extreme degree of a more common change, viz., the diminished size and contracted appearance of the sepals and petals when affected with axillary prolification. They have also a close relationship to such developments as we see in the wheat-ear carnation, in certain species of the genus _Maesa_ and others, wherein the calyx is repeated over and again, to the partial or complete suppression of the other parts of the flower. All these cases may be in part explained by the operation of the principle of compensation. So far as the androecium is concerned, the stamens either remain unaltered, or they are present in a more or less petal-like condition; but it far more frequently happens that the stamens are entirely suppressed, the adventitious bud supplying their place; thus was it in the _Dianthus_ represented in the adjoining woodcut, fig. 66, where the stamens were entirely absent, and their places supplied by flower-bearing branches. This _Dianthus_ has the more interest from its similarity to the one described by Goethe, Metam. der Pflanzen, cap. 16, sect. 105; but in that instance median prolification also existed. For my specimens I am indebted to Mr. T. Moore. [Illustration: FIG. 66.--Flower of _Dianthus_ sp., calyx removed; petals turned down so as to show the stalked flower-buds springing from their axils.] The pistil, too, is necessarily subject to very grave alterations when affected with this malformation. It is separated into its constituent carpels; and these assume a leaf-like aspect, and are in the great majority of instances destitute of ovules. Indeed, virescence or chloranthy is very intimately connected with this aberration, as might have been anticipated, for if the parts of the flower assume more or less of the condition of stem-leaves or bracts, it is quite natural to expect that they will partake likewise of the attributes of leaves, even at the expense of their own peculiar functions.