206 ORGANOGRAPHY, 



We have now finished our description of the different kinds 

 of regular inflorescence, and from what we have already stated, 

 it may be readily understood that they may be sitxiated either 

 at the apex of the stem, or at the extremities of branches, or in 

 the axils of leaves, or of bracts. Besides the above kinds, all of 

 which are comprehended under the two classes of indefinite and 

 definite inflorescence, there is a third class, which consists in a 

 combination of these, to which the term of mixed injiorescence 

 has been accordingly given. 



Mixed Inflorescence. — This kind of inflorescence is by 

 no means uncommon. It is formed by the general inflorescence 

 developing in one way, and the partial or individual inflorescences 

 in another. Thus in plants of the natural order Compositge {Jig. 

 418), the terminal capitulum is the first to expand, and the 

 capitula, as a whole, are therefore developed in a centrifugal 

 manner ; while the individual capitula open, as we have seen, 

 their small flowers or florets from the circumference to the centre, 

 or centripetally ; hence, here the general inflorescence is defiiiite, 

 and each partial inflorescence indefinite. In Labiate Plants we 

 have a directly reverse arrangement (/^. 367), for here the in- 

 dividual clusters or verticillasters open their flowers centri- 

 fugally ; but the general inflorescence is centripetal ; hence the 

 general inflorescence is here indefinite, while each partial in- 

 florescence is definite. 



Section 2. Of the Parts or the Plower, and their Ar- 

 rangement IN the Flower-bud. 



In common language, the idea of a flower is restricted to that 

 portion in which its gay colours reside, but botanically, we 

 understand by the flower, the union of all the organs which 

 contribute to the formation of the seed. We have already stated 

 that the parts of the flower are only leaves in a modified con- 

 dition, or rather the analogues of these organs, or homologous 

 formations adapted lor special purposes ; and that hence a flower- 

 bud is to be considered as the analogue of a leaf-bud, and the 

 flower itself of a branch, the internodes of which are but slightly 

 developed, so that all its parts are placed in nearly the same 

 plane. The detailed examination of this theoretical notion of a 

 flower will be reserA'ed till we have finished the description of its 

 different parts or organs, when we shall be better able to under- 

 stand it, as well as other matters connected with its symmetry, 

 and the various modifications to which it is liable. (See General 

 Morphology.) 



1. Parts of the Flower. 



A complete flower consists of the essential organs of repro- 

 duction, enclosed in two particular envelopes which are designed 



