184 



OEGANOGBAPHY. 



either green like an ordinary leaf, as in the Cuckow-pint, or 

 coloured, as in Bichardia (sthiopica. In some Palms these spathes 



Fig. 376. 



Fig. 377. 



Fig. 376. Flower of the Spring Snow-flake (Leticojum vernum). 



Fig. 377. Spadix of Cuckow-pint {Arum maculatum) enclosed in a 

 spathe, a portion of which has been removed to show the flowers 

 within it. 



are of great length, sometimes even as much as twenty feet; 

 and as many as 200,000 flowers have been counted in some of 

 them. Sometimes the spadix of Palms branches {fig. 391), and 

 then we frequently find smaller spathes surrounding its divisions, 

 which have been named spathtllce. Some botanists restrict the 

 term spathe to the large enveloping bract of the spadix, and call 

 the other bracts of a like character spathaceous bracts. 



Besides the bracts which surround the head of flowers of the 

 Compositae and form an involucre, it frequently happens that 

 the individual flowers are also provided with little bracts, which 

 are then generally of a membranous nature, and colourless, as 

 in the Chamomile {fig. 378, b, b); these have received the name 



The only other bracts which have received special names are 

 those found in Grrasses and Sedges. Thus, the partial in- 



