8+ DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. PART I. 



ary bud is not developed, the inflorescence must consist 

 of a solitary flower (). If the leaves are placed alter- 

 nately on the axis, the peduncle of the flower will bear 

 a single bractea at its base. If the secondary bud is de- 

 veloped (ft No. 2.), it will terminate in a flower with a 

 bractea at the bottom of its peduncle, bearing a ter- 

 tiary bud in its axil ; and this (No. 3.) may develop 

 like the former ; and so on. In this case, all the 

 flowers will appear to stand opposite the leaves or 

 bractea?, upon a stem which seems 40 develop inde- 

 finitely ; but which is, in reality, composed of a succes- 

 sion of branches or peduncles, originating from different 

 orders of buds. Since No. 1. is the real termination 

 of the main axis, and Nos. 2, 3, &c. are further and 

 further removed from it, the order in which the 

 flowers expand is from the centre outwards, and this 

 has in consequence been termed the "Centrifugal inflo- 

 rescence." 



When the leaves or bracteae are opposite or verticillate, 

 in the terminal inflorescence, this is called a " cyme." 

 When each secondary bud is developed from the axils of 

 a pair of opposite bractese, and the tertiary buds origin- 

 ate in the same manner, and so on, the cyme is styled 

 " dichotomous" (fig. 80. a). If there be a whorl of three 



bractese, the cyme is " trichotomous," &c. If, how- 

 ever, one bud only is developed in the dichotomous 



