36 THE PHENOMENON OF 



belonging to the same spike or the same capitule, i. e. 

 arising from the same parent axis and thus forming only 

 one generation, are partly male (the lower or outer) and 

 partly female. The Hornbeam (Carpinus) may furnish 

 an example of a more complicated case. Male and female 

 catkins arise as co-ordinate sprouts from the same parent 

 axis, but the male flowers form the second generation on the 

 male catkins, the female blossoms the third generation on 

 the female inflorescences. The division of the generations 

 occurs therefore here in the last generation but one for 

 the males, in the last but two for the females ; the two 

 kinds of catkin are, to a certain extent, themselves again 

 " stocks " upon the " stock," the male " stock" (catkin) 

 with two-membered, the female with three-membered 

 series of generations.* Examples of monoecious condition 

 through mere succession of generations are furnished by 

 many Euphorbiacese, for instance, Euphorbia and Buxus, 

 where the male blossoms are produced as lateral sprouts 

 from the sprouts terminating with female flowers. f 



Besides the sprouts which present themselves as essen- 

 tial members of succession of generations and of division 

 of generations, and consequently are necessary to the full 

 carrying out of the series of formations up to blossom 

 and fruit, most plants possess other sprouts, which are 

 not necessarily connected here, and therefore maybe dis- 

 tinguished from those hitherto examined, under the name 

 of inessential sprouts. In plants which possess terminal 

 flowers, i. e. in which the main- sprout terminates in a 

 flower, all the lateral sprouts, however numerous and 

 regular they may be, are to be regarded as inessential. 

 The inessential sprouts enrich the "stock" within the 

 annual period of vegetation, if they succeed the main 

 sprout quickly in their development, as is the case, for 

 example, among annual plants (summer plants) with 

 all the sprouts ; in herbaceous perennials with the 



* It is similar in Quercus, only here both the female and the male flowers 

 form the second generation within their inflorescences, 

 f Sarcococca exhibits the reverse. 



