vii.] THE INFLORESCENCE. 73 



of compound flower, inclosed in a common calyx, but we 

 found in the Daisy that it was composed of a number of 

 distinct flowers (florets), each with its own calyx and 

 corolla. The ring of bract-leaves which surrounds the 

 flower-head answers to the ring surrouading the umbel, 

 and is called by the same name involucre. Sunflower, 

 Dandelion, Thistle and Groundsel, each have this form 

 of inflorescence. 



In the Buttercup each leaf-bearing axis terminates in a 

 solitary flower. In Wallflower we found that the leafy 

 axis does not itself terminate in a flower, but gives off a 

 succession of secondary branches (pedicels) each of which 

 bears a flower. All forms of inflorescence in which the 

 leafy axis itself terminates in a flower are termed definite 

 or cymose ; while those inflorescences in which the leaf- 

 bearing axes never actually terminate in a flower, but, 

 as in Wallflower, give off a succession of lateral pedicels, 

 are termed indefinite. In the Chickweeis and Stitchworts 

 we have the cymose or definite inflorescence well shown 

 in their characteristic forked cymes. 



An inflorescence which branches irregularly and re- 

 peatedly like that of Bramble, Horse Chestnut, and most 

 Grasses, may be, for descriptive purposes, called a panicle. 



In describing the form of an inflorescence, when it 

 does not exactly coincide with any of the principal types 

 here defined, that which is nearest may, for the present, 

 be applied to it in an adjective form, as spicate, racemose, 

 paniculate like a spike, a raceme, a panicle, and so on. 



1 5. As we progress from below upwards in the exami- 

 nation of the various organs of the plant, we notice, in 

 approaching the flowers, that the foliage-leaves usually 

 decrease in size, as in Buttercup, so that those next 

 to the flower, or from the axils of which the flowers 

 spring, are often very narrow and sometimes scale-like. 

 Such reduced or otherwise modified leaves, immediately 

 associated with the flowers or bearing them in their axils, 

 are distinguished as bracts, and flowers thus associated 

 with bracts are said to be bracteate. Orchis shows a very 

 gradual passage from foliage-leaves to the bracts. In 

 most plants the transition is much more abrupt. A ring 

 or series of numerous bracts, inclosing flowers or pedicels, 

 as in Dandelion and Cow-parsnip, we have called an 



