INFLORESCENCE. 



61 



in the peony, c. g., that no absolute limits can be assigned. Equally 

 gradual is the transition from bracts to sepals of the flower — affording 

 a beautiful illustration of the doctrine of metamorphosis. (374.) 

 Bracts will be further considered under the head of Inflorescence. 



1S4 183 



Bracts 1S3, Pinckneya pubens ; b, colored bracts (radiate sepals). 1S4, Zornia tetraphylla ; b, 

 bracts (enlarged stipules). 



CHAPTER IX 



INFLORESCENCE. 



320. The functions of plant-life are two- fold, namely, vegetation and re- 

 production : the former looking to the preservation of the individual plant itself; 

 the latter to the species. Corresponding with this view, there are also two classes 

 of organs. Having considered the former class, that is, the organs of vegetation, wo 

 come now to the organs of reproduction, including the flower, the fruit, and the 

 eeed. 



321. Inflorescence is a term denoting the arrangement of the 

 flowers, and their position upon the plant. 



322. Origin of flower buds. All the buds of a plant are supposed 

 to be originally of one and the same nature, looking to the production 

 of vegetative organs only. But at a certain period, a portion of the 

 buds of the living plant, by an unerring instinct little understood, are 

 converted from their ordinary intention into flower buds. 



323. Proof of this theory. That this is the origin of the flower bud is evident 

 from the known effects of cultivation, causing it to revert partly or wholly to its 

 former intention, as in the green rose, when the petals, &c, all return to leaves ; in 



