apostasis

Definitions

noun In old medicine: The termination or crisis of a disease by some secretion or critical discharge, in opposition to metastasis, or the termination by transfer to some other part. An apostem or abscess. The throwing off or separation of exfoliated or fractured bones.
noun In botany, a term proposed by Engelmann for the separation of floral whorls or of parts from each other by the unusual elongation of the internodes.

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The adjacent figure of a monstrous _Delphinium_ taken from Cramer illustrates well the elongation of the floral axis and the apostasis of the carpels.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
Among _Rosaceæ_, the change in question is very common, especially in conjunction with an elongation of the axis of the flower (apostasis) and with prolification, though it is by no means always co-existent with these malformations.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
This is borne out by the frequency with which apostasis, or the separation of the floral whorls one from another, to a greater degree than usual, is met with in prolified flowers.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
-- Flower of _Delphinium_, showing apostasis of carpels, from lengthening of the thalamus, &c.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters
In these instances the lobes or leaflets become separated one from another by a kind of apostasis.

Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants Maxwell T. Masters