DEFINITIONS OF TERMS 15 
The term gland is applied not only to the small, waxy, shining, usually 
colored, dots found on leaves, etc., but also to the variously shaped, wart- 
like or shield-like bodies found on petioles, pedicels, petals, sepals, etc.; 
to small translucent vescicles in the leaves, petals, etc., filled with oil, 
usually readily seen with transmitted light; and to lobes of the disk or 
other excrescences in the flower. 
THE INFLORESCENCE.—By the inflorescence, we mean the flowers and 
their arrangement on the plant. Flowers may be solitary or variously 
grouped. When a single flower or group of flowers terminates a branch 
_it is called terminal; when borne in the axils of the leaves, awillary; 
when borne on the internodes between the nodes or axils, extra-axillary; 
when borne opposite a leaf, leaf-opposed; when borne on the stem below 
the leaves, cauline; and when borne on the root, radical. 
Solitary flowers may be sessile when seated on the axil or other support 
without any supporting stalk, or pedicelled when supplied with a stalk 
or pedicel. A stalk that bears a cluster of flowers is called a peduncle, and 
the individual stalks of the flowers are called pedicels. 
There are numerous forms of inflorescences, and these have received 
special names. A spike or spicate inflorescence is that kind where the 
flowers are sessile along a simple undivided axis or rachis; a raceme or 
racemose inflorescence is similar to a spike, but the flowers are pedicelled; 
a panicle or paniculate inflorescence is where the axis or rachis is divided 
regularly into branches which bear two or more flowers, and is usually 
more or less open; an wmbel or umbellate inflorescence is where the flowers 
are pedicelled and all spring from the apex of the peduncle, the branches 
arranged like the ribs of an umbrella; a head or capitate inflorescence is 
where the flowers are sessile and crowded in a dense globose mass; a 
corymb or corymbose inflorescence is where the branches and pedicels, 
although starting from different points, all attain the same level, the 
lower branches and pedicels being longer than the upper ones, the inflores- 
cence having a flat or nearly flat top, the outer flowers opening first; a _ 
cyme or cymose inflorescence is similar to a corymb, but the inner flowers 
open first; a fascicle is where the flowers are sessile or pedicelled and 
crowded, usually axillary; a catkin or ament is a short or long, usually 
dense, scaly spike; a spadix is a dry or fleshy spike with small flowers, 
the whole commonly surrounded by an enveloping organ called the spathe, 
as in the taro (gabi) and the Araceae in general. 
Flowers and inflorescences are frequently supplied with small or large, 
often leaf-like organs, known as bracts and bracteoles. In general bracts, 
when present, are found under each branch and branchlet of the inflores- 
cence, while bracteoles are borne on or at the base of the pedicels of the 
flowers. When several bracts are collected in a whorl, that is, spreading 
radiately from a single node, loosely or closely enveloping an inflorescence 
or a flower, they are collectively called the involucre. Glumes are the 
usually dry bracts enclosing the flowers in the grasses and sedges. Paleae 
are the inner chaff-like scales in the heads of certain Compositae, the 
inner scales of grasses, the scales on the rootstocks and stipes of ferns, ete. 
THE FLOWER.—A complete flower consists of four sets of organs, the 
two outer rows or whorls, known as the floral envelopes, consisting of 
the calyx and the corolla and collectively known as the perianth, and two 
inner rows or whorls, the essential organs, consisting of the stamens and 
pistils. The axis of a flower, or that part on which the various organs 
are inserted is called the receptacle. 
