So also among plants with indefinite inflorescence, prolification seems very frequently to affect those wherein the axis is normally prolonged; thus it is common in _Dictamnus_, which plant has an internode supporting the pistil; it is frequent among _Umbelliferae_, where the carpophore may be truly considered an axile production; it is common among _Rosaceae_ and _Ranunculaceae_, in many of which the axis or thalamus is well-marked, and it is by no means infrequent in the flowers of the Orange, where the floral internodes are also slightly elongated; on the other hand, there is no case on record in _Magnoliaceae_, and some other orders where the floral part of the axis is at some point or other elongated; still, on the whole, there can be but little doubt that there is a real relation between prolification and the normal extension of the floral internodes. Under these circumstances, those instances wherein the parts of the flower become separated one from the other by the elongation of the internodes (apostatis), constitute a lesser degree of the same change, which operates most completely in the formation of a new bud at the extremity of the prolonged axis. Some specimens of _Geum rivale_ (a plant very liable to become prolified) in my possession show this very clearly. In the wild plant the thalamus is elevated on a short stalk; in the abnormal ones the thalamus is simply upon a longer stalk than usual, or in a more advanced stage of the deviation the lengthened thalamus takes the form of a branch provided with leaves and terminated by a flower; it is noticeable, also, in these specimens, that the sepals of the lower flower have assumed entirely the dimensions and appearance of leaves. Median prolification has occasionally been recorded in flowers that have, in their ordinary condition, but one carpel, as in _Leguminosae_ and in _Santalaceae_. In _Leguminosae_, as also in _Amygdalus_, it would seem as if the adventitious bud were strictly a lateral and axillary production, and moreover that the carpel itself is not strictly terminal but lateral in position, though apparently terminal from the abortion of other carpels. In the only recorded instance that I am aware of, of this malformation affecting the genus _Thesium_, the pistil was altogether absent, and occupying its place was the new bud or branch.[124] [Illustration: FIG. 61.--_Daucus Carota_, showing leafly carpels, prolification, &c.] As the carpels are not unfrequently absent in cases of median prolification, it has been thought that the pistil in such cases was metamorphosed into a stem bearing leaves or flowers. Setting aside the physiological difficulties in the way of accepting such an opinion, an examination of any number of cases is sufficient to refute it; for, as Moquin well remarks, the carpels may frequently be found either in an unaltered condition or more or less modified.