80 



MORPHOLOGY OF THE ANGIOSPERMS 



The flowers of an inflorescence may be connate laterally either by 

 their basal parts or throughout their length, forming "compound" 

 flowers whose morphological structure is recognizable only anatomically 

 — ^some of the Betulaceae. Among the species of Lonicera with two- 

 flowered inflorescences, there are found stages in the lateral connation 

 of the pairs of flowers (Fig. 39). Some species have the flowers wholly 



Fig. 39. Sketch and diagrams of Lonicera spp. showing an inflorescence of two 

 flowers fused by their ovaries, and, in the diagrams, the fusion of vascular bundles 

 under connation. A, L. syringantha; B, L. canadensis; C, L. tatarica; D, L. 

 Standishii; E, L. oblongifolia; F, L. caerulea. (A to E after Wilkinson.) 



free; other species show various degrees of lateral connation of the 

 flowers by their pedicels and ovaries up to complete union of the 

 flowers to the base of the perianth. The various species show well 

 not merely external fusion but fusion between major elements of the 

 vascular skeleton. The free-flowered species show derivation from a 

 cymose inflorescence like that of the related Diewilln. Similar lateral 

 fusion of the several flowers of an inflorescence by their ovaries is seen 

 in Sijncarpea (Myrtaceae); the united, inferior ovaries form a globose 



