OF THE IXFLOllESCBNCE. 189 



said to be either interrupted, or vvhorled ; as in some 

 Mints. In Saiiguisorba officinalis the spike begins 

 flowering at the top. See Capitulum below. 



A compound spike is seen in Lavandula vinnata, 

 Curt. Mag. t. 401, and L. abrotanoides of Willdenow. 



Spica secunda, a spike whose flowers lean all to one 

 side, occurs in Nardus stricta, Engl. Bot. t. 290. 



Spicula^ f. 131, a Spikelet, is applied exclusively 

 to grasses that have many florets in one calyx, such 

 florets, ranged on a little stalk, constituting the spike- 

 let, which is therefore a part of the flower itself, and 

 not of the inflorescence ; see Poa aquatica^ t. 1315, 

 jluitans^ t, 1520, Briza mi?2or, t. 1316, See. 



CoRYMBUs,y. 132, a Corymb, is a spike whose partial 

 flower- stalks are gradually longer as they stand lower 

 on the common stalk, so that all the flowers are nearly 

 on a level, of which Spircea opulifolia^ a common 

 shrub in gardens, is an excellent specimen. The Lin- 

 nasan class Z(??rrtr/z/7?«;?2?a exemplifies this less perfect- 

 ly, as Cardamine pratensis^ Engl. Bot. t. 776, Cheiran- 

 t/ius sinuatus, t. 462, and tie common Cabbage, Bras- 

 sica oleracea, t. 637, in which the corymbus of flowers 

 becomes a racemus of fruit, as happens also in that sec- 

 tion of the Feronicce, entitled by Linnaeus corymboso- 

 racemosiS. The flowers of Yarrow, yi 133, Achillea^ t. 

 757, and 758, and several others of the compound class, 

 as well as the Mountain-Ash, t. 537, grow in a corym- 

 bose manner, though theii inflorescence may not come 

 exactly under the above definition. It is worthy of re- 

 mark that Linnaeus in that definition uses the v.^ord spica^ 

 not racemus, nor has he corrected it in his own copy 



