26o BOTANY OF THE LIVING PLANT 



individual flowering branches, or pedicels. Examples are seen in the common 

 Rock Rose, and in Echeveria. 



The simplest Racemose, or Indefinite inflorescence is the Spike, where 

 flowers in an acropetal sequence are seated directly in the axils of the bracts 

 borne by the main axis or peduncle, as in Verbena (Fig. 181). Or the lateral 

 flower-stalks (pedicels) may be elongated, giving the condition of the typical 

 Raceme as in the Currant (Fig. 182). Or again the pedicels may be themselves 

 branched, as in the Vine, giving the panicle (Fig. 183). Such differences 

 depend partly upon differences of intercalary growth, partly upon branching 

 of a higher order. In all of them the distal buds develop latest. It happens, 

 however, not uncommonly that the characters may be mixed. For instance, 



Fig. 182. 

 Inflorescence of Currant : a raceme. (After Figuier.) 



a cymose tendency may appear in the higher branchings of a panicle ; as is well 

 seen in the inflorescences of Figwort, where the terminal flower of the lateral 

 branches blooms before those seated below. 



The racemose type is particularly subject to extreme differences of growth in 

 length. The result is seen in certain inflorescences which characterise large 

 families. The most important are the Umbel and the Capitulum, Both result 

 from suppression of growth in length. If the axis be abbreviated in the part, 

 that bears the pedicels these will all appear to originate from the same level, 

 giving a candelabrum-like branching, called a simple Umbel (Fig. 179, D). 

 The subtending bracts are also grouped into a close investment just below 

 the group of branches It is called collectively an involucre and serves for 

 protection in the young state (Fig. 184). The branching may be repeated 

 in each of the pedicels, each being provided with a partial involucre of bracts. 

 The result is the Compound Umbel (Fig. 185). But as in other complicated 

 inflorescences, the bracts of the partial, and even the general involucre, are 



