210 



THE INFLORESCENCE. 



ment of the leaves governs the whole arrangement of the blossoms, 

 as well as that of the branches. The almost endless variety of 

 modes in which flowers are clustered upon the stem, many of them 

 exhibiting the most graceful of natural forms, all implicitly follow the 

 general law Avhich has controlled the whole development of the vege- 

 table from the beginning. We have, throughout, merely buds termi- 

 nating the stem and branches, and buds from the axil of the leaves. 



379. The simplest kind of inflorescence is, of course, that of a 



solitary flower, — a sin- 

 gle flower-stalk bearing 

 a single flower ; as in 

 Fig. 306 and Fig. 327. 

 The flower is solitaiy in 

 both these instances ; but 



306 in the latter case it oc- 



cupies the summit of the stem, that is, it stands in the place of 

 a terminal bud ; in the former it arises from the axil of a leaf, or 

 represents an axillary bud. These two cases exhibit, in their great- 

 est simplicity, the two plans of inflorescence, to one or the other of 

 which all flower-clusters belong. 



380. We begin with the second of these plans ; in which the 

 flowers all spring from axillary buds ; while the terminal bud, de- 

 veloping as an ordinary branch, continues the stem or axis indefi- 

 nitely. For the stem in such case may continue to elongate, and 

 produce a flower in the axil of every leaf, imtil its powers are ex- 

 hausted (Fig. 307). This gives rise, therefore, to what is called 



381. Indefinite or Indeterminate Inflorescence. The primary axis is 



here never terminated by a flower ; but the secondary axes (from 

 axillary buds) are thus terminated. The various forms of indefi- 

 nite inflorescence which in descriptive botany are distinguished by 

 special names, as might be expected, run into one another through 

 intermediate gradations. In nature they are not so absolutely fixed 

 as in our wa-itten definitions ; and whether this or that name should 

 be used in a particular case is often a matter of fancy. The sub- 

 joined account of the principal kinds will at the same time bring to 

 view the connection between them. 



382. The principal kinds of indefinite inflorescence which have 

 received distinctive names are the Raceme, the Corymb, the Umbel, 

 the Spike, the Head, the Spadix, the Catkin, and the Panicle. 



[FIG. 306. A flowering branch of Moneywort, Lysimachia nummularia. 



