CHAPTER X. 



THE SHAPES OF FLOWERS. 



§ 232. Following an order like tliat of preceding chap- 

 ters, let us first note a few typical facts respecting the forms 

 of clusters of flowers, apart from the forms of the flowers them- 

 selves. Two kindred kinds of Legiouinosce will serve to show 

 how the members of clusters are distributed in an all-sided man- 

 ner or in a two-sided manner, according as the circumstances 

 are alike on all sides or alilvc on only two sides. In Hippo- 

 crepis, represented in Fig. 226, the flowers growing at the end 



of a vertical stem, are arranged 

 round it in radial sjTnmetry. 

 Contrariwise in MelilGtus, Fig. 

 227, w^here the axillary stem 

 bearing the flowers is so 

 placed in relation to the main 

 stem, that its outer and inner 

 sides are difierently condi- 

 tioned, the flowers are all on 

 the outer side : the cluster is 

 bilaterally symmetrical, since 

 it may be cut into approx- 

 imately equal and similar 

 groups by a vertical plane passing through the main axis. 



Plants of this same tribe furnish clusters of intermediate 

 characters having intermediate conditions. Among these, 

 as among the clusters whicn other t^^es present, may be 



