76 THE FLOWERING PLANT. 
a flower-stalk bearing one or a cluster of flowers grows right 
up from the ground, it is termed a scape, and may either belong 
to definite inflorescence, as in tulip, or indefinite, arising in 
the latter case from a leaf-axil belonging to an underground 
or abbreviated shoot, as in primrose and cowslip. 
It is usual for flowers to occur grouped together into clusters. 
In other words, they are formed upon special branch-systems, 
to which the term! inflorescences is usually given. The 
branches of such a cluster arise from the axils, not of ordinary 
leaves, but of bracts, which are mostly small, simple, and useless 
for the purposes of foliage. Many plants, as orchids, show a com- 
plete gradation between foliage leaves and bracts. On the other 
hand, the transition may be very abrupt. In some exceptional 
cases, €.g., Shepherd’s purse, the flower clusters possess xo bracts, 
so that the flower-bearing branches are not axillary. ‘The con- 
verse of this is not uncommon, 7.e., the occurrence of bracts 
without branches in their axils. They then, owing to their 
small size, receive the name of bractlets or bracteoles, and are 
situated not far from a flower, as, for instance, in pansy and 
violet (fig. 51). Bracts may become large or otherwise con- 
spicuous for special purposes. When brightly coloured, as in 
hyacinth, they are termed petaloid, because tints other than 
green are most usually found in the petals. A large sheath- 
like bract, then known as a spathe, may surround an inflor- 
escence. ‘The large green structure enclosing the central column 
of arum is of this nature (fig. 33). Another case is seen in the 
onion. Smaller examples are found in the membranous structures 
ensheathing the scapes of narcissus, daffodil, and snowdrop. 
A spathe may be petaloid, as in the arum lily, where it is large 
and of a brilliant white colour, which makes it look something 
like a corolla. 
When the flowers are in the axils of ordinary leaves, their 
stalks may be called peduncles, but in the case of a flower cluster 
they are pedicels, the word peduncle being reserved for the main 
axis. If the cluster branches more than once, the intermediate 
stem structures are called partial peduncles. 
Racemose inflorescences are either simple or compound, t.e., the 
lateral axes either terminate in flowers without branching, or 
else branch to a greater or less extent. Otherwise expressed, 
the lateral axes are pedicels in the former case, partial peduncles 
in the latter. Simple racemose inflorescences are again sub- 
divided according to the state of the internodes in the main 
axis, which is long or short as these are well or ill developed. 
1 Inflorescence, therefore, may mean :—(I.) Arrangement of flowers; (2.) 
a special flower-bearing branch system. 
