EVOLUTION OF THE INFLORESCENCE. 537 
long summer shoots may be looked upon as a surviving habit of a former 
state, when the plant was a somewhat continuous flowerer and a dweller in a 
warmer climate. 
Rhodotypos kerrioides bears its solitary flowers somewhat similarly to the 
foregoing genus. 
Neviusia alabamensis has a simple form of inflorescence composed of a 
terminal flower the first to bloom and a few lateral flowers, each borne in 
the axil of a foliage leaf. The pedicels bear no bracteoles. 
It is interesting to note that in this genus an inflorescence is associated 
with an apetalous flower. The other two genera have marked corollas and 
solitary flowers. 
Rubus.—The gradual evolution of somewhat dense eymose inflorescences 
from the solitary terminal flower can be followed in this genus. 
Large solitary terminal flowers have been noted in X. deliciosus, a shrubby 
species. On the flowering shoot full-sized foliage leaves occur right up to 
where the long flower-stalk commences. In this instance there would seem 
io be no grounds for supposing that the single flower is a reduced 
inflorescence. In fact, the lack of bracts suggests strongly that this 
solitary terminal flower is primitive. 
Rubus palmatus has its flowers either terminal and solitary, or disposed in 
a simple dichasium, with a pair of bracteoles to each of the two lateral floral 
shoots. 
Rubus phenicolasius has a terminal flower and three laterals, and each of 
these branches dichasially producing tertiary flowers. 
The lax inflorescence of R. odoratus branches still further, producing 
flowers to the fourth degree. 
Finally, X. fruticosus, the common bramble of the British Isles, has a 
more compact and floriferous inflorescence. Several lateral floral shoots are 
emitted, six or seven are common; these branch somewhat dichasially. 
The terminal flower is the first to bloom. 
Rosa.—The gradual building up of a branched cymose inflorescence from 
the solitary terminal flower can be traced in this genus. 
Hosa spinosissima of our western coasts has solitary flowers terminating 
short leafy shoots. The leaf next to the flower retains its foliaceous character 
and is hardly reduced in size, thus comparable to Rubus deliciosus in the 
preceding genus. osa altaica, R. sericea, R. Hugonis, etc., bear their 
flowers similarly. 
Several species have been noted which may produce a cluster of three or 
four flowers or only the terminal one. Z canina, the common rose of our 
hedgerows, is a case in point. Sometimes the shoot ends in a solitary flower 
with the uppermost leaf foliaceous. More frequently lateral floral shoots 
are emitted from the axils of the two upper leaves, which are reduced in 
size, the upper one being merely a stipular bract. The secondary shoots 
