204 INDEFINITE INFLORESCENCES.—STROBILE.—RACEME, 
The cone is sometimes regarded as the fruit or pseudocarp 
of a single flower, and not an inflorescence or collection of 
flowers as here described. Some, again, do not distinguish 
between a cone anda strobile, but put the two inflorescences 
together under the common name of cone or strobilus, which 
they define as a collection of persistent woody or membranous 
scales or bracts, each of which bears a pistillate flower at its 
base. 
Fie. 418. Fie, 419. 
Fig. 417. Branched spadix of a Palm (Chamc7ops), enveloped in a spathe. 
Fig. 418. Inflorescence of Wheat (Ziticum vulgare), consisting of 
numerous sessile spikelets arranged on an elongated peduncle (7achis ),—— 
Fig. 419. Branched or panicled arrangement of the spikelets of the Oat 
(Avena sativa). 
f. The Strobile.—This is a kind of spike formed of persistent 
membranous bracts or scales, each of which bears at its base a 
pistillate flower. It is seen in the Hop (fig. 421). 
All the kinds of indefinite inflorescence at present described 
owe their essential characters to the flowers being sessile upon an 
elongated axis. We now pass to describe others, in which the 
axis is more or less branched, and the flowers consequently 
situated upon stalks. The simplest of these is the Raceme. 
g. The Raceme.—This name is applied to that form of inflores- 
cence in which the elongated peduncle or rachis bears flowers 
