THE INFLORESCENCE 



79 



consist of four staminate flowers adnate to four calyxlike bracts, which 

 subtend them, and four distal pistillate flowers. 



Extensive Fusion in Inflorescences. The great variety of form in in- 

 florescences is increased and complicated by connation and adnation in 

 the branch system and among parts of the flowers. Simple adnation of 

 inflorescences to adjacent organs is frequent and often apparent, as in 



Fig. 38. Sketches of Streptopus showing reduction of inflorescence and adnation of 

 peduncle to stem. A, S. simplex, inflorescence reduced to solitary flower, peduncle 

 adnate to stem for only a short distance above axil of leaf; B, S. roseus, inflorescence 

 as in A, peduncle adnate almost up to leaf above the one in whose axil it is borne; 

 C, S. amplcxifolius, lowest inflorescence showing two flowers with bract indicating 

 a third, and those above showing one flower and a bract indicating another, 

 peduncle adnate to stem up to leaf above, making it appear to be borne below 

 a leaf. ( Drawing by Elfriede Abbe. ) 



the adnation of the inflorescence of Tilia to its subtending bract and 

 that of the spathe of some aroid inflorescences to the flower cluster — 

 Phijllocarpiis. More obscure relationships involve fusion of the peduncle 

 to the mother axis, as in Streptopus, Sparganhim, and other genera, 

 where the flowers appear to be borne below a leaf rather than in its 

 axil (Fig. 38).- 



