OF THE INFLORESCENCE. IS"^ 



florescence looks, at first sight, like a cylindrical spike, 

 but when bent to either side, it separates into branch- 

 ed lobes, constituting a real panicle. (97) 



Thyrsus,/ 141, a Bunch, is a dense or close panicle, 

 more or less of an ovate figure, of which the Lilac, 

 Syringia vulgaris, Curt. Mag. ^ 183, Tussilago hijb- 

 rida and Petasites, Engl. Bot. t. 430, 431, arc exam- 

 pies cited by Linnaeus. I presume likewise to con- 

 sider a bunch of grapes, Vitis vinifera, as a true thyr^ 

 sus, to the characters and appearance of which it cor- 

 recdv answers. Its ultimate terminations are some^ 

 times obscurely umbellate, especially while in blos- 

 som, which is no objection here, but can never be the 

 case in a racemus, whether simple or compound. See 



Iiace??ius. 



Of simple flower-stalks, whether solitary or cluster- 

 ed, radical or cauline, axillary, lateral or terminal, we 

 have already spoken. 



Linnzeus remarks that the most elegant specific 

 characters are taken from the inflorescence. Thus 

 the Apple, Efigl. Bot. t, 179, and the Pear, form two 

 species of Fyrus, so far at least a most natural genus, 

 the former of which bears an umbel, the latter a co- 

 rymb. Pyrola uriifiora, t. 146, secumla, t. 517, and 

 umbellata, Curt. Mag. t. 778, are admirably distin^ 

 g-uished bv their several forms of inflorescence. 



(97) [A Panicle leaning one way, Panicula secunda, is foiinel 

 in Dactylis glomsrata^ or Orchard Grass.] 



AA 



