EVOLUTION OF THE INFLORESCENCE, 551 
very differently built up. The main axis, commencing from below upwards, 
bears first the evergreen leaves produced the previous year, then follow a 
number of bracts coming off from the main axis close together through the 
internodes remaining largely undeveloped. In the axil of each braet arises 
a floral shoot bearing a terminal flower and a false whorl of bracteoles, 
producing in their axils additional flowers. The main axis, after emitting 
the flower-bearing shoots, ends in a terminal bud, which gradually unfolds, 
producing foliage and lateral leafy shoots for the current year. 
Occasionally the terminal vegetative bud ending the main axis of the 
inflorescence becomes arrested : it fails to grow out into a new leafy shoot. 
A pseudoterminal inflorescence is thus in the process of arising from an 
intercalary one. 
Intercalary inflorescence of Drimys Winteri. The floral internodes on the 
main axis are lengthened in the diagram for the sake of clearness. vg. vege- 
tative continuation above the inflorescence. fl. foliage leaves below. 
From an examination of the genus in the Kew Herbarium, Drimys piperata, 
D. aromatica, D. membranea, D. dipetala, and D. chilensis appear to have 
intercalary inflorescences similar to those of D. Winteri. 
Besides these species with intercalary inflorescences, there are others with 
apparently terminal inflorescences, e. g., D. /Toweana, D. Pancheri, D. rivularis, 
and D. crassifolia. These doubtless are of the pseudoterminal class, the 
vegetative terminal bud having aborted. 
A third mode of flower-bearing occurs in the genus. The flowers are 
borne in clusters in the axils of the foliage leaves, e. g., D. axillaris, and 
some forms of D. Winteri. This, then, most likely represents the primitive 
way for the genus. By, grouping together these axillary inflorescences and 
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