1072 



A I'l-XTBOOK OF THEORETICAL BOTANY 



the solitar>', terminal flower as our starting point for the consideration of 

 flower-groupings. We have httle or no actual information about the evolu- 

 tion of such groupings and our treatment of them must therefore be purely 

 formal and geometrical, for which purpose the simplest starting point is 



the best. . , n i 



Among the living Angiosperms such solitary terminal flowers are rarely 

 formed on the principal axis and then only in a few annuals of slight growth, 

 such as Mgella or Paparer among Dicotyledons, or in reduced geophilous 

 Monocotvledons such as Tulipa. They are not uncommon, however, on 



Fig. 1043. — Liriodevdron tulipifera with solitary flowers, ter- 

 minal on the branches. 



lateral branches and it may be significant that they are found in genera which 

 are on other grounds regarded as primitive, i.e.. Magnolia and Liriodendron 

 (Fig. 1043). There is no evidence to support the idea that the condition 

 here is due to reduction. 



Much more widespread is the grouping of flowers upon some more or 

 less definitelv specialized part of the shoot system and it is to such groupings 

 that the term inflorescence is applied, when used morphologically. 



Originally the term w^as applied by Linnaeus to the mode of arrange- 

 ment of the flowers upon the flowering branch itself, which is more cor- 

 rectly described as anthotaxy. Modern usage has widened the meaning 



