CHAPTER XL 



FLOWER STALK AND INFLORESCENCE. 



The stalk which bears the flower and fruit, springs 

 immediately from the earth, as in Dandelion, or arises 

 from the stem and its branches. In the former case it 

 presents an example of the Scape which like the radical 

 leaves, is appropriated chiefly to stemless plants. In 

 the Hyacinth it is naked, in the Colts foot it is scaly, 

 in the Valisneria it is spiral, in the Dandelion it is 

 tubular, and iu the sweet flag it terminates in a leaf- 

 like expansion, and is denominated leafy. 



When the flower-stalk arises directly from the stem 

 or its branches it is named the Peduncle. When it 

 arises from the side of the stem it is lateral, when from 

 the summit it is terminal, and when from the bosom of 

 the leaves it is axillary. It is one-flowered in the Tu- 

 lip, two-flowered in Li?incea, and many flowered as in 

 the Cowslip Fig. 22 and Lilac. 



In the latter, and indeed in numerous other examples, 

 the flower-stalk is branched, and the peculiar arrange- 

 ment which the flowers assume, technically named the 

 Inflorescence depends on the number, proportion and 

 distribution of these pedicels or branches. If the flow- 

 ers are solitary, or in pairs, their origin alone will oc- 

 cup} our attention, " but when many grow together, 

 their aggrog-.tion forms a feature in the habit of the 

 plant, ppculiarly striking and peculiarly interesting to 

 the botanist, as forming the most elegant and the most 

 invariable of ail specific distinctions. 



