192 GENERAL CHARACTERS OF BRACTS. 
apex of the floral axis or branch, or laterally, and then commonly 
in the axil of modified leaves. Flower-buds, therefore, like leaf- 
buds, are terminal or axillary. In the latter case the modified 
leaves from which they arise are called bracts or hypsophyllary 
leaves. In strict language the term bract should be only applied 
to the leaf from the axil of which a solitary flower or a floral axis 
arises ; while all other leafy structures which are found upon 
that axis between the bract and the flower properly so called, 
should be termed bractlets or bracteoles (fig. 404, b, b). These 
two kinds of bracts are, however, but 
rarely distinguished in practice, the term 
bract being generally alone used for 
either variety, and in this sense we shall 
hereafter, as a general rule, apply it. 
Bracts vary much in appearance, 
some of them being large, of a green 
colour, and in other respects resembling 
the ordinary foliage leaves of the plant 
upon which they are placed, as in the 
Fia. 394. 
Pre: 395. Fie. 396. 
Fig. 394, Flowering stalk of the Pimpernel (Anagallis 
arvensis). 6, 6. Solitary flowers arising from the 
axil of the leafy bracts, a, a. Fig. 395. Calyx of 
the Marsh-mallow (Althea officinalis) surrounded 
by an epicalyx or involucre.——Fig. 396. Flower 
of the Strawberry (Fragaria vesca), surrounded by 
an epicalyx or inyolucre. 
White Dead-nettle (fig. 393) ; andin the Pimpernel ( fig. 394, a, a); 
in which case they are called leafy bracts. Such bracts can only 
be distinguished from the true leaves by their position with 
regard to the flower-stalk or flower. In most cases, however, 
bracts, although very commonly of a greenish colour, are smaller 
than the foliage leaves ; and in many plants they may be known 
from the ordinary leaves not only by their position, but also by 
differences of colour, outline, texture, and other peculiarities. 
Thus the bracts forming the cupule of the Oak are hard and 
woody ; in the Hop they are membranous ; in certain plants 
of the Aracez and Euphorbiacee coloured ; in the flower-heads 
of the Compositze scaly ; and other modifications also occur. 
