OEGANOGRAPHY. 



during the ripening of the fruit, as in the Cashew Nut, they are 

 excrescent. 



Fig. 384. 



Fig. 385. 



Flo. 384. Peduncle of the Lime tree {Tllia europcea) attached to bract h. 



Fig.Z%h. Branch of Woody Nightshade {Solanum Dulcamara) with 



extra-axiUary peduncle. 



3. Kinds of Inflorescence. 



The term inflorescence is used generally to indicate the 

 arrangement of the flowers upon the floral axis, in the same way 

 as the term vernation is employed in a general sense for the 

 arrangement of the component leaves of a leaf-bud, and that 

 of aestivation for the parts of a flower-bud. As flowers are 

 variously arranged upon the. floral axis, we have a number of 

 different kinds of inflorescence, and to each mode of arrange- 

 ment a particular name is applied. These modifications are 

 always the same for the same species of plant, and frequently 

 for entire genera, and even natural orders, and hence their dis- 

 crimination is of great practical importance. All the regular kinds 

 of inflorescence may be arranged in two great classes ; the general 

 characters upon which they depend being understood, their several 

 modifications will be readily intelligible. These two are called : 

 1st, Indefinite or Indeterminate, and 2nd, Definite ov Determinate 

 Inflorescence. In the former, the primary floral axis is termi- 

 nated by a growing point, analogous to the terminal leaf-bud of 

 a stem, or branch, and hence such an axis has the power of grow- 

 ing or elongating in an upward direction, or of dilating more or 



