An illustration given by Moquin from Dunal[407] goes far to support the notion here adopted. The majority of the stamens of laurels (_Laurus_) have, says M. Dunal, on each side of the base of their filaments a small glandular bifid appendage; these excrescences are liable to be changed into small stamens. The male flowers have a four-leaved calyx, and sometimes eight stamens, each with two glands, four in one row, opposite to the sepals, four in a second series alternating with the first. More generally two of the stamens are destitute of glands, but have in their place a perfectly developed stamen, so that in these latter flowers there are twelve stamens. M. Clos[408] mentions a flower of rue (_Ruta_) wherein there were two stamens joined together below and placed in front of a petal, as in _Peganum_. Buchenau[409] mentions a flower of _Lotus uliginosus_ in which there were eleven stamens, namely, two free and nine monadelphous; and Hildebrand describes an analogous increase in a flower of _Sarothamnus scoparius_ in which, in conjunction with a seven-toothed calyx, there were two carinas and fourteen stamens. It would seem probable in this case that there was a coalescence of two flowers at an early date and consequent suppression of some of the parts of the flower. Whether this was the case or not in this particular illustration, it is nevertheless certain that many of the recorded instances of increased number in the organs of a flower are really the results of a fusion of two or more flowers, though frequently in the adult state but few traces of the coalescence are to be seen.