THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 5 



flower, the Pyrolas or false wintergreens, the common 

 locust, the Wistaria, the moth mullein and most of the 

 Borage famih' which includes the lungwort and forget-me- 

 not. In certain plants the flow^ers at the base of the ra- 

 ceme may have their stems lengthened enough to bring all 

 the floA?vers on a general level, such as the hawthorn, apple 

 and pear. Such clusters are called corymbs. If, instead 

 of each flower being borne on a short stem of its own 

 springing from the main stem, the flower-stems are them- 

 selves branched, the inflorescence is apanicle. The Hydran- 

 gea, wald grape, catalpa, lilac and swamp saxifrage bear 

 panicles. Another form of flow^er-cluster is so characteris- 

 tic that it has given a name to an entire order of plants — 

 the UmbelHfera?. The umbel is the form in which the indi- 

 vidual flower stems spring from the top of a common 

 stem, and are abotit of equal length. The carrot, parsley, 

 celer^^ fennel, dill and cara-w^ay are members of the umbel- 

 liferee, and the same form of inflorescence may be found in 

 the milkweeds {Asclepias), the onion and in the ginseng 

 famih'. The head ma^^ be considered a modification of the 

 umbel in which the flow^ers are sessile or stemless. The 

 button-bush, button-wood and clover are examples. The 

 cvme is a general term for a sort of flattened panicle tj'pi- 

 fied by the elder and the viburnum. 



BRACTS AND THEIR MODIFICATIONS. 



The term bract is used to designate certain small green 

 leaflike organs in the vicinit\^ of the flower. We know thej- 

 are not sepals for the sepals are borne in a single whorl on 

 the outside of the flow^er while the bracts are scattered 

 here and there on the stems and branches near the flow^er- 

 ing parts. Without doubt bracts are reduced leaves. In 

 some cases they are quite like the leaves in everj-thing ex- 

 cept size but in others there is little resemblance. More- 

 over, there are many plants w^hich show a complete gra- 

 dation from leaves to bracts. 



It is the modifications of these bracts that most inter- 

 est the flower-lover. Often we find them taking a prom- 

 inent place in the flower. For instance, the three green 



