196 VARIETIES OF BRACTS.——SPATHE. 
When a bract is of large size and sheathing, and surrounds 
one, or a number of flowers, so as to completely enclose them 
when in a young state, as in the Iris, Narcissus, Snowflake (fig. 
402), the common Arum or Cuckoo-pint (fig. 403), and Palms 
(fig. 417), it is called a spathe. The spathe is generally found 
surrounding the kind of inflorescence called a spadix (page 
203), as in the Arum (jig. 402), and Palm (fig. 417); and it 
is also very common in other Monocotyledons. The spathe 
may be either green like an ordinary leaf, as in the Cuckoo- 
pint ; or coloured, as in Richardia exthiopica. In some Palms 
these spathes are of great length, sometimes even as much as 
twenty feet ; and as many as 200,000 flowers have been counted 
in them. Sometimes the spa- . 
dix of a Palm branches (jig. Fie. 405, 
417), and then we frequently 
find smaller spathes surround- 
ing its divisions, which have 
been named spathelle. Many 
Fie. 404. 
Fig. 404. Receptacle of the Chamomile (Anthemis nobilis), bearing tubular 
flowers (florets), a, a, and bracteoles, b, bd: the latter are sometimes termed 
Pales. (The receptacle is here drawn much too large at the apex, it 
should be conical in form.) Vig. 405. Locusta or spikelet of the Oat 
(Avena sativa). gl,gl. Glumes. ps, pi. Palee or Pales. a. Awnarising from 
the dorsum of the outer pale, ps. js. An abortive flower, 
botanists restrict the term spathe to the large enveloping bract 
of the spadix, and call the other bracts of a like character, 
which enclose only one or at most a few flowers, as frequently 
found in Monocotyledons, spathaceous bracts. 
Besides the bracts which surround the head of flowers of 
the Compositz and form an involucre, it frequently happens 
that the individual flowers or florets (fig. 404, a, a) are also 
provided with little bracts or bracteoles, b, b, which are then 
generally of a membranous nature, and colourless, as in the 
Chamomile. These have received the name of palex, but as 
this term is applied to certain special bracts found in Grasses 
(see below), they are better named scales, or by some other 
term which expresses their texture and character. 
The only other bracts which have received special names 
are those found in plants of the Grass and Sedge orders. Thus 
