Il] SYMPODIUM : DEFINITE INFLORESCENCE 13 



common axis, or peduncle, on which flowers are borne 

 laterally, each with a bract at its base; and so arranged 

 that the oldest flower is below, and each flower above 

 younger and younger until we reach the apex (Fig. 2, C). 



Here, it is clear, we have an inflorescence which is 

 raceme-like in form ; but, as is equally evident, it is not 

 a true raceme with monopodial structure and acropetal 

 development, but is built up of successive segments, 

 each of which in spite of the straightening out is a 

 lateral structure. 



An axis of this compound nature is termed a Sympo- 

 dium, and in this particular case forms a Monochasium or 

 Pseudaxis i.e. a false axis terms used to denote the 

 fact that it is made up of segments of different orders, 

 and not of the nodes and internodes of a true, continuous 

 mother-axis with continued onward growth of the apex. 



Moreover, such a Sympodium cannot properly be 

 described as acropetal in development, since No. 1 in 

 Fig. 2 is really the terminal flower of the first axis, No. 2 

 of the second axis, and so on. 



For a similar reason the growth cannot be properly 

 termed indefinite even in the relative sense used above 

 for the growth of the first axis (Fig. 2, A) is rapidly 

 terminated by the flower 1 ; that of the second by the 

 flower 2, and so on ; whence such an inflorescence is 

 termed definite. 



Further, since this inflorescence is not monopodial, but 

 sympodial in structure, is not acropetal in development, 

 and is not indefinite, but definite in growth, it would be 

 illogical to call it racemose in the sense defined above. 

 Racemoid in form it is, to a degree so deceptive that we 

 must look for some signs by which such an inflorescence 

 may be distinguished from a true raceme. 



In this case the position of the bracts at the base of 



