4 THE AMERICAN' BOTANIST. 



somewhat enlarged bud. Others soon followed having 

 the usual shape of those found on the flowering plant. By 

 Maj^ the stem had started sk\'ward. In June it threw 

 ofl" lateral branches, these again branching in Juh^ and by 

 the middle of August the flower buds began forming. 



In experimenting with the seedlings, their marked pre- 

 ference for lime could hardly be overlooked. Possibly the 

 soil used was deficient in this ingredient. However, that 

 may be I find in looking up the few stations for this plant 

 with which I am acc|uainted that all iire either located in, 

 or not far removed from limestone formations. Mr. Plitt 

 tells me that he also finds the plants more robust in cal- 

 careous soil. It would be interesting to hear from others 

 respecting the character of the soil in which the plant is 

 found, and to know if the preference noted in the seedlings 

 was simph' accidental, or if it really has any bearing on 

 the distribution ot the plant. 



Aikin, Matvlanci. 



BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS— IX. 



FLOWER CLUSTERS. 



If each flower grew on a simple stem, like the blood- 

 root, hepatica, trillium, violet, ^vater lily, lady's slipper 

 and a host of others, we would escape the' infliction of cer- 

 tain technical words which otherwise seems unavoidable. 

 Fortunately most of these are in common use, though they 

 are often applied rather loosely. Let us begin with the 

 spike, a word which, among florists and gardeners, does 

 duty for any assemblage of flowers along a stem. Botan- 

 ically, however, a spike is a stem upon which the flowers 

 are sessile, that is the flowers do not have separate stems 

 of their own. The plantain, common mullein, willow-herb 

 {Epilobium) the blue vervain and common evening prim- 

 rose are good examples of this. Next to the spike comes 

 the raceme and differs from it only in that the separate 

 flowers have short stalks of their own. It is perhaps the 

 commonest form of inflorescence and illustrations may be 

 found among the Lobelias represented b^^ the cardinal 



