Dr. Dickie on the Inflorescence of Fedia olitoria. 317 



XXXIX. — On the Inflorescence 0/ Fedia olitoria, and its order of 

 expansion. By G. Dickie, M.D., Lecturer on Botany in the 

 University and King's College of Aberdeen. 



In the latest works on British plants, Sir W. J. Hooker's and 

 Mr. Babington's, the inflorescence of the different species of 

 Fedia is described as follows : — 



Fedia olitoria. Flowers capitate (Hooker) ; flowers in compact ter- 

 minal heads, involucrated with oblong linear bracteas (Babington). 



F. carinata. Flowers capitate (Babington). 



F. auricula. Flowers corymbose, a sessile flower in the forks (Hooker) ; 

 flowers distant, in the forks of a repeatedly dichotomous panicle 

 (Babington). 



F. dentata. Flowers corymbose, a sessile flower in the forks (Hooker) ; 

 flowers corymbose (Babington). 



F. eriocarpa. Corymb condensed (Babington). 



From which it would appear as if there were in the British 

 species of this genus, examples of three different kinds of inflo- 

 rescence, viz. the capitulum in F. olitoria and F. carinata^ the 

 panicle in F. auricula, and the corymb in F. dentata and F. erio- 

 carpa. 



In the only species which has come under my observation in 

 the fresh state, viz. F. olitoria, the general order of expansion is 

 certainly not that which characterizes the simple capitulum ; I was 

 hence induced to examine more particularly the nature of its in- 

 florescence. After careful inspection of numerous specimens, the 

 cause of the apparent anomaly became very evident. The stems 

 are invariably forked, the dichotomy being repeated fom* times ; a 

 single flower in the axil of each fork, the lowest flower expanding 

 first, and so on in succession upwards. Each subdivision stands 

 at right angles to the preceding and is subtended by two leaflets, 

 which only differ from those on the lower part of the stem in 

 being smaller and narrower ; they cannot however be considered 

 bracteas as usually described, since their relation to the flower is 

 different from that occupied by a bractea as generally understood. 

 On examining dried specimens of some of the other species, I was 

 induced to believe that the same general arrangement exists also 

 in them ; so that Mr. Babington's description of F. auricula is 

 also applicable to the others, omitting, however, the expression 

 distant, for in some of the others the inflorescence is more con- 

 densed, owing to the shortening of the stems. 



It may hence be inferred, that the nature of the inflorescence 

 cannot be employed as a means of distinguishing the British spe- 

 cies of Fedia, it being the same in all, only in some being lax and 

 in others more dense. It has been already stated that the dicho- 



