1«8 



ORGANOGRAPHY. 



that flower-buds are analogous to leaf-buds ; and this analogy 

 is still farther proved by their occupying similar situations to 

 them ; thus, they are placed either at the apex of the floral axis 

 or branch, or in the axil of leaves. Flower-buds, therefore, 

 like leaf- buds, are terminal or axillary. In the latter case the 

 leaves from which they arise are called bracts or floral haves. 

 In strict language the term bract should be only applied to the 

 leaf from the axil of Avhich the floral axis arises, while all other 

 leaves which are found upon that axis betAveen the bract and the 

 flower properly so called, should be termed bractlets or hracteules. 

 These two kinds are however but rarely distinguished in prac- 

 tice, the term bract being generally used to indicate either, and 

 in this sense avc shall hereafter apply it. 



Bracts vary much in appearance, some of them being large, 

 of a green colour, and in other respects resembling the ordi- 

 nary leaves of the plant upon which they are placed, as in 

 the White Dead-nettle (Lamium album) (fig. 370); and in the 



Fig. 370. 



Ff'g. 370, Flowering stalk of the White Dead-nettle (.Lamium albimO. 



Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) {fig. 371); in which case they 

 arc called leafy bracts. Such bracts can only be distinguished 

 from the true leaves by tlicir ])osition with regard to the flower- 

 stalk or flower. In most cases however, bracts may be known 



