THE SO-CALLED SCORPIOID CYME. 617 
is on one or other of the branches; and not exactly between them. Secondly, two flowers 
may sometimes, but rarely, be found in the fork instead of one. Thirdly, two opposite 
leaves may sometimes be seen, one below each branch. Fourthly, axillary scorpioid 
racemes spring from the axils of several of the upper leaves of the stem. - 
. The interpretation I would offer is the following :—The inflorescence is really indefinite : 
of the two branches, one is terminal, the other is strictly axillary; but an adhesion, with 
occasional uplifting of the bracts as well, usually takes place between the terminal and 
last. axillary branch. Whenever this adhesion ceases exactly at the lowest flower of 
either branch, it gives rise to the appearance of dichotomy with a terminal flower in the 
fork*. Whenever the two uppermost leaves, which should be separated by an inter- 
node, are occasionally brought together, then they are only abnormally opposite. 
The inflorescence of Myosotis will illustrate this interpretation. A selection has been 
made and represented in the following figures out of some hundreds examined of several 
species of this genus :— 
Fig. 10 represents, diagrammatically, an unequal development between the terminal 
and the last axillary branch; both carry bracts. 
Fig. 11. The axillary branch is here nearly equal in strength to the terminal; the 
bracts are arrested. | 
Fig. 12. The bracts are likewise arrested on both the terminal and the axillary 
branches, which are still more nearly equal. 
Fig. 13. The terminal and axillary branches are of equal growth, and an adhesion has 
now taken place between them from a to b. 
Fig. 14 shows a greater degree of adhesion, in that it has extended to the lowest 
flower, which consequently appears to issue from the fork, giving the appearance of 
dichotomy. | E 
- Fig. 15 shows excessive adhesion beyond the lowest flower, so that four flowers rise 
from below the fork. : 
Fig. 16 illustrates a case where the leaf out of the axil of which the branch has sprung 
is “uplifted”? beyond the lowest flower on the axillary branch. ; | 
Fig. 17 exhibits excessive adhesion as in fig. 15, with the uplifting of the bract as well. 
. This condition of a leaf or bract being uplifted is not without frequent parallel else- 
where. In the Crassulacee, where modified cymes often occur, such uplifting as well as 
elevation by adhesion is far from being uncommon (see fig. 5). | 
It will not be unadvisable here to summarize the successive steps or processes through 
which, as I suppose, the inflorescence has passed im order to arrive at the condition 
presented in the so-called scorpioid cyme of Myosotis. 
-* Bravars, I find; had long ago anticipated this observation, for he observes:—“ dans la plupart des Borragindes 
qui offrent des cimes scorpioides axillaires, le premier pédoncule de chaque cisco emm Ss au moins PE: la tige 
centrale " (Ann. des Sc. Nat. 2° sér. vii. p. 298, 1837). He also notices how this union gives rise to * double" scorpioid 
. . eymes (7. c. p. 300). poe ps de qu : Lo SÉ 
