ANTHOTAXY, OR INFLORESCENCE. 141 



CHAPTER V. 



ANTHOTAXY, OR INFLORESCENCE. 



262. INFLORESCENCE, a term which would literally denote the 

 time of flower-bearing, was applied by Linnaeus to the mode, that 

 is, to the disposition of blossoms on the axis and as respects 

 their arrangement with regard to each other. ANTHOTAXY, a 

 name formed on the analogy of phyllotax}-, and denoting flower- 

 arrangement, is a better term. The subject really belongs to 

 ramification (83, 14-16), and is also concerned with foliation 

 and with phyllotaxy. It is most advantageously treated apart, 

 immediately preceding the study of the blossom itself. 



263. In and near the blossom, 

 both axis and foliage very commonly 

 undergo modification, either abrupt or 

 gradual, giving rise in the former to 

 Peduncles and Pedicels, in the latter to 

 Bracts and Bractlets. 



264. A Bract (in Latin Bractea) is a 

 leaf belonging to or subtending a 

 flower-cluster, or subtending a flower, 

 and differing from the ordinary leaves 

 in some respect, usually in shape and 

 size, not rarely in texture ,and color. 1 

 They are commonly, but not always, 

 reduced or as if depauperate leaves, of 

 little or no account as foliage, but some- 

 times of use for protection, sometimes 

 rivalling the highly colored flower-leaves 

 for show, more often insignificant or 



minute and functionless, sometimes obsolete (as in Cruciferse) , or 



1 Bracts of the first order are sometimes called floral leaves (Folia floralia) , 

 or at least these are not well distinguished from bracts. But the term floral 

 leaves is descriptively more properly and usually applied to leaves below 

 the bracts or proper origin of the flower-clusters, yet near them, and un- 

 like the proper cauline leaves. It is a vague term, and is in some danger of 

 being confounded (as it never should be) with another vague term, viz. 

 flower-leaves, or the leaf-like organs of the flower itself. 



FIG. 269. Bract (spathe) of Indian Turnip, partly cut away below to show the 

 fleshy spike (spadix) of flowers which it surrounds. 



