[Illustration: FIG. 53.--Lateral prolification in inflorescence of _Pelargonium_.] It is common in the _Anemone coronaria_ and _hortensis_, also in the common scarlet _Pelargonium_ (fig. 53). It has been frequently recorded in _Poterium sanguisorba_, and in _Sanguisorba officinalis_, and is especially common in _Umbelliferae_, _Dipsacaceae_, and _Compositae_; a familiar illustration in the latter order is afforded by the hen-and-chicken daisy. In some species of Compositae, indeed, it is a normal and constant occurrence, while in other cases, such as _Filago germanica_, usually described as proliferous, there is not, strictly speaking, any prolification, for the branching of the stalk takes place below the inflorescence, and the branches originate from the axils of ordinary leaves, not from the floral leaves or bracts. _Convolvulus Sepium_ is very commonly subject to the production of flower-buds from the axils of the floral leaves. The several species of Plantain (_Plantago_) seem very liable to this and similar changes. Schlechtendal[115] gives a summary of the various kinds of malformation affecting the inflorescence in _Plantago_, and divides them into five groups, as follows:--1st, bracteate, wherein the inferior bracts are quite leaf-like, as is frequently seen in _Plantago major_. 2nd, roseate; bracts leafy in tufts or rosettes, without flowers, as in the so-called rose plantain, common in old-fashioned gardens in this country. 3rd, polystachyate; spike-branched, bearing other spikes in the axils of the bracts, as in _P. lanceolata_, _P. maritima_, &c. 4th, proliferous, where the flower-stalk bears a rosette, a spike, or a head with other rosettes. 5th, paniculate, in which the inflorescence has become a much-branched pyramidal panicle, covered with little bracts, and with very rudimentary flowers.[116] The first two groups belong rather to frondescence of the bracts; but with regard to the whole of them it will easily be surmised that intermediate forms occur, linking one group to the other, and defying exact allocation in either. Thus, in the borders of richly cultivated fields in the neighbourhood of London I have frequently gathered specimens of _Plantago major_ with a branched spike provided with large leafy bracts, the branches of the spike being but little less in diameter than the ordinary single spike. These specimens would therefore seem to be intermediate between Schlechtendal's bracteate and polystachyate divisions. Wigand[117] also describes an anomalous specimen of _Plantago major_ similar to those just mentioned, but having small lateral spikes in place of large ones. The instance quoted from Professor Braun would fall under the roseate section, as would also that of Kirschleger, though we are expressly told that the tuft of leaves in this last case was not developed until after the ripening of the seed-vessel. One of the characters of the roseate group, according to Schlechtendal, is the absence of flowers, but most