316 FLO WEE-BUD FLOEETS ESTIVATION. [BOOK i. 



The flower, when in the state of a bud, is called the alabas- 

 trus (bouton of the French) ; a name used by Pliny for the 

 rose-bud. Some writers say alabastrum, forgetting, as it 

 would seem, that that term was used by the Romans for a 

 scent-box, and not for the bud of a flower. Link calls the 

 parts of a flower generally, whether united or connate, moria, 

 whence a flower is bi-polymorious (Elem., 243.) ; but I know 

 of no other writer who employs these terms, which indeed 

 are superfluous. It is more usual to introduce the Greek 

 noun /uepos, a part of anything, in connection with some 

 numeral, as pentamerous, if a flower consists of organs in 

 fives, tetramerous, if in fours, and so on. The same fact is 

 indicated briefly by the signs fy ^J/, &c. 



The flowers of a capitulum, small, and somewhat different 

 in structure from ordinary flowers, are called florets (flosculi ; 

 elytriculi of Necker ; fleurons of the French.) 



The period when a flower opens is called its expansion or 

 anthesis ; the manner in which its parts are arranged, with 

 respect to each other, before the opening, is called the 

 (estivation. 



The expansion of a flower is either centrifugal, or centri- 

 petal centrifugal when the central or uppermost flowers 

 expand first centripetal when the marginal or lowermost 

 flowers expand first. 



^Estivation is the same to a flower-bud as vernation is to a 

 leaf-bud : the terms expressive of its modifications are to be 

 sought in Glossology. This term sestivatiou is applied 

 separately to the parts of which a flower may consist ; thus, 

 we speak of the aestivation of the calyx, of the corolla, of the 

 stamens, and of the pistil ; but not of the sestivation of a 

 flower collectively. 



5. Of the Inflorescence. 



Inflorescence is a term contrived to express generally the 

 arrangement of flowers upon a branch or stem. The part 

 which immediately bears the flowers is called the pedunculus 

 or peduncle, and is to be distinguished from any portion of a 



