OF THE INFLORESCENCE. 177 



close together, or if otherwise, they form separate 

 groups, perhaps whorls, when the spike is said to 

 be either interrupted, or whorled; as in some Mints. 

 In Sanguisorba officinalis the spike begins flower- 

 ing at the top. See Capitulum below. 



A compound spike is seen in Lavandula pinnat a, 

 Curt, Mag. i'. 401, and L, abrotanoides of Willde- 

 now. 



Spica secunda, a spike whose liowers lean all to 

 one side, occurs in Nardus st7^icta, Engl. Bot. t. 290. 



Spicula,f. 131, aSpikelet, is applied exclusively 

 to grasses that have many florets in one calyx, such 

 florets, ranged on a little stalk, constituting the 

 spikelet, which is therefore a part of the flower it- 

 self, and not of the inflorescence ; see Poa aqua- 

 tica, t. 1315, fiuitansy t. 1520, Bfiza minor , 

 if. 1316, &c. 



CoRYMBUS,y*. 132, a Corymb, is a spike whose par- 

 tial 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 Spircsa opulifoUa, 

 a common shrub in gardens, is an excellent speci- 

 men. The Linnaean class Tetradynamia exemplifies 

 this less perfectly, as Cardamine pralensis, EngL 

 Bot. t. 776, Cheiranthus sinuatus, t. 462, and the 

 common Cabbage, Brassica okracea^ t. 6^7^ in 

 which the corymbus of flowers becomes a racemus 

 of fruit, as happens also in that section of the Ve- 



