180 OF THE INFLORESCENCE. 



is usually the case in the very natural order of plants 

 called umbelliferous,/! 138, to which the last-men- 

 tioned, as well as the common Carrot, Parsnep, 

 Parsley, Hemlock, &c. belongs. 



A few only of this order have simple umbels, as 

 Hi/drocotyle vulgaris^ t, 7ol, and the curious 

 Astrantice, f. 137, and Eriocalice., E.vot, Bot. 

 t. 76 — 79' In Euphorbia the umbel is differently 

 compounded, consisting of 3,4, 5 or numerous rays, 

 each of which is repeatedly subdivided, either in a 

 three-fold or forked manner. See Engl. Bot. t. 883, 

 959, &c. 



Cyma, f. 1 S9, a Cyme, has the general appearance 

 of an umbel, and agrees with it so far that its com- 

 mon stalks all spring from one centre, but differs in 

 having those stalks variously and alternately sub- 

 divided. Examples are found in Viburnum, Engl. 

 Bot. t. 331, ?t'i^^ and the common Laurustinus, as 

 also in Sambucus, Elder, t. 475, 476. This mode 

 of inflorescence agrees with a corymbus also in ge- 

 neral aspect ; but in the latter the primary stalks 

 have no common centre, though the partial ones 

 may sometimes be umbellate, which last case is pre- 

 cisely the reverse of a cyma. 



Panic U LA, /! 140, a Panicle, bears the flowers in 

 a sort of loose subdivided bunch or cluster, without 

 any order. When the stalks are distant, it is called 



