KINDS OF CYME.—-DICHASIUM. 213 
110), but only apparently so, in consequence of the greater 
development of the lateral branches as compared with that of 
the terminal one. 
Such cymes are also frequently characterised as corymbose, 
or umbellate, from their resemblance, except in the order of 
the expansion of their flowers, to the true corymb, or umbel ; 
or as globose, linear, &c., according to their general form. 
Again, when a definite inflorescence does not assume a more 
or less corymbose or umbellate form, as in the ordinary cyme 
just described, it is also best characterised by terms derived 
from the kind of indefinite inflorescence to which it bears 
a resemblance. Thus, when a cyme has sessile flowers, or 
nearly so, as in the Sedum (fig. 436), 1t may be described as a 
spiked cyme ; when it has its flowers on pedicels of nearly equal 
length, as in the Campanula (fig. 437), as a racemose cyme ; or 
when it assumes the form of a panicle, as in the Privet (jig. 
438), as a panicled cyme. These latter terms, however, although 
in many cases very characteristic, are but little employed. 
These forms of cymes are readily distinguished from the true 
racemes and other kinds of indefinite inflorescence, by the 
terminal flowers opening first, and the others expanding in 
succession towards the base, or in a centrifugal manner: while 
in the true raceme, and the other kinds of indefinite inflores- 
cence, the flowers open first at the base and last at the apex, or 
centripetally. 
Besides the ordinary cyme and its varieties now mentioned, 
other kinds of cymose inflorescences have.also received particular 
names, as the Helicoid or Scorpioid Cyme, the Fascicle, the Glome- 
rule, and the Verticillaster : these we must now briefly describe. 
b. Helicoid or Scorpwid Cyme.—This is a kind of cyme in 
which the flowers are only developed on one side, and in which 
the upper extremity is more or less coiled up in a circinate 
manner, so as frequently to resemble a snail, or the tail of a 
scorpion ; hence the names helicoid and scorpioid by which such 
a cyme js distinguished. This kind of cyme is especially deve- 
loped in plants of the Boraginacex, as the Forget-me-not (jig. 
439), and the Comfrey (jig. 440). In these plants the bracts 
are alternate ; but such a cyme may also occur in plants with 
opposite bracts, and the manner in which it is most commonly 
believed to be formed in the two cases, is as follows :—Thus, 
in plants in which the bracts are opposite, it arises by the 
regular non-development of the axes on one side, while those 
on the other side are as regularly produced. This will be 
readily explained by a reference to the diagram (fig. 441). 
Here a represents the flower which terminates the primary 
axis; at the base of this flower are two bracts, only one of 
which develops a secondary axis b, which is in like manner 
terminated by a flower, at the base of which are also two 
bracts, only one of which, (i.e. that on the same side with the 
