56 Commercial Gardening 



improved by stopping the growth of too rampant lateral shoots, but not 

 the leader. 



Sympodial stems are very numerous, and are not the result of the 

 continuous growth of the primary axis from year to year. For instance, 

 a seedling Vine would be monopodial until it produces a tendril, which is 

 the termination of the primary axis. A bunch of flowers or berries is the 

 equivalent of the tendril, and in any of these cases the axis is continued 

 by the growth of an axillary bud or axis that pushes the primary one to 

 a side. It will be noticed that the tendril or bunch of flowers is always 

 opposite to a leaf, not in its axil. A similar method of growth may be 

 noted in the Tomato. The first bunch of flowers is really the termination 

 of the axis of the seedling plant. An axillary bud grows 

 strongly and pushes the bunch of flowers on one side, and 

 in its turn terminates in a bunch of flowers, and so on 

 indefinitely. The number of bunches on a single-stemmed 

 Tomato is an index to the number of axes thus super- 

 posed, and forming the "sympodium" or combination of 

 several separate axes. This mode of growth is brought 

 about in the Willows by the dying of the terminal bud at 

 the end of each season, and as a result of it the growth 

 next year must be continued by an axillary bud. Sym- 

 podial branching may be observed in the Lilac and Horse- 

 chestnuts. Whenever a stem or branch ends in a bunch of 

 flowers, the axis afterwards dies back to the first pair of 

 buds, which will produce two new axes, if they are leafy 

 buds, but if flower buds, then growth must be continued 

 from a lower pair of buds. 



Forms of Inflorescence. When flowers occur singly 

 at the end of an axis, as in the Tulip, it is terminal and 



,., , , , a . , , . . Fig. 43. Racemose In- 



SOlltary; and when only one flower is produced in the florescence- indefinite 



axil of an ordinary leaf it is termed axillary and solitary. 

 More often two or any larger number of flowers are associated together on 

 a floral axis, with or without bracts at the base of the individual flower 

 stalks, and such an association is termed an "inflorescence". The floral 

 axis shows greater variation in the modes of branching than the ordinary 

 stem. The monopodial or indefinite form is seen in the Wallflower, 

 Rocket, Lily of the Valley (fig. 43), and Laburnum, in each of which the 

 inflorescence is a raceme. The lowest flower is the oldest and first to open, 

 and is succeeded by others in centripetal order, and each is furnished with 

 a stalk of its own. The spike is also monopodial, and differs from the 

 raceme by the absence of stalks to the flowers, as in Orchis and Verbena. 

 The corymb is a form in which the lower flower stalks are long, so as to 

 bring the flowers all to the same level, as in Star of Bethlehem. The umbel 

 has its flower stalks all of the same length, and arising from one point, as 

 in the garden Polyanthus, Cowslip, and Cherry. The compound umbel is 

 seen in the Carrot, Parsnip, Parsley, and Celery. The first or primary 



