INFLORESCENCE OK ANTHOTAXIS. 



153 



it is hollowed at the apex, so as apparently to form the lower part of 

 the outer floral envelope, as in Eschscholtzia. 



329. The termination of the peduncle, or the part on which the 

 whorls of the flowers are arranged, is called the Thalamus or Torus. 

 It is the termination of the floral axis. The term receptacle is also 

 sometimes applied to this, whether expanded so as to bear several 

 flowers, or narrowed so as to bear one. It may be considered as the 

 growing point of the axis, which usually is arrested by the production 

 of the flowers, but which sometimes becomes enlarged and expanded. 

 Thus, in the Geranium, it is prolonged beyond the flower in the form 

 of a beak; in the Arum, it is a club-shaped fleshy column (fig. 239, 

 2, a) ; in the Strawberry, it becomes succulent and enlarged, bearing 

 the seed-vessels; while in Nelumbium it envelops them in the form of 

 a truncated tabular expansion. In some cases it bears the seeds. In 

 some monstrous flowers, as in Eose and Geum, it is prolonged as a 

 branch bearing leaves (fig. 226). 



330. There are two kinds of inflorescence one in which flowers are 

 produced in the axil of leaves, while the axis continues to be elongated 

 beyond them, and to bear other leaves and flowers; the other in which 

 the axis ends in a single terminal flower. In the former, the flowers 

 are axillary, the axis extends in an indefinite manner, and the flowers, 

 as they successively expand, spring from floral leaves placed higher on 

 the axis than the leaf from which the first flower was developed. In 

 the latter, the single solitary flower terminates and defines the axis, 

 and the flowers developed subsequently, arise from floral leaves below 

 this central flower, and therefore further re- ( ^v 



moved from the centre. 



331. The first is Indeterminate, Indefinite, or 

 Axillary inflorescence, in which the axis is either 

 elongated, continuing to produce flower-buds 

 as it grows, the lowermost expanding first ; or 

 it is flattened and depressed, and the outermost 

 flowers expand first. The expansion of the 

 flowers is thus centripetal, that is, from base to 

 apex, or from circumference to centre. When 

 this kind of inflorescence produces many flowers, 

 it is simple, and proceeds from the development 

 of the flower-buds of a single branch. This 

 kind of inflorescence is shown in fig. 231, where 

 the leaf from which the cluster of flowers is 



Fig. 231. Raceme of Barberry (Herberts vulgaris), produced in the axil of a leaf or bract,/, 

 which has been transformed into a spine, with two stipules, s, at its base, of. Primary floral 

 axis, bearing small alternate bracts, 6, in the axil of which the secondary axes, a" a" are pro- 

 duced, each terminated by a flower. The expansion of the flowers is centripetal, or from base to 

 apex ; the lower flowers have passed into the state of fruit, the middle are fully expanded, and 

 those at the top are still in bud. Indeterminate simple inflorescence. 



