13"2 ORGANOGRAPHY. BOOK T. 



the place of wliich is occupied by bracts, supported by other 

 bractea; which enclose no flowers, and when with such a form- 

 ation the rachis, which is flexuose and toothed, does not fall 

 off with the flowers, as in Grasses, each part of the inflo- 

 rescence so arranged is called a spikelet or loaista {epillet, Dec. ; 

 paquet, Tournefort). 



When the flowers are closely arranged around a fleshy 

 rachis, which is enclosed in the kind of bract called a spathe 

 (see p. 125.), the inflorescence is termed a spadLv {spadice or 

 poinroii, Fr.), {Jiff. 85.). This is only known to exist in Aroi- 

 dea- and Palms. It is frequently terminated, as at^^. 85., by a 

 soft club-shaped mass of cellular substance which extends far 

 beyond the flowers, and is itself entirely naked : this is an in- 

 stance of a growing point altogether analogous to what forms 

 the spine of a branch, except that it is soft and blunt, instead 

 of being hard and sharp-pointed. 



The raceme has been said to differ from the spike only in 

 its flowers being pedicellate : to this must be added, that the 

 pedicels are all of nearly equal length ; but in many plants, as 

 Alyssum saxatile, the lower pedicels are so long that their 

 flowers are elevated to the same level as that of the upper- 

 most flowers ; a corymb is then formed {Jig. 87.). This term 

 is frequently used in an adjective sense, to express a similar 

 arrangement of the branches of a plant or of any other kind 

 of inflorescence : thus, in Stevia, the branches are said to be 

 corymbose ; in others, the panicle is said to be corymbose ; 

 and so on. When corymbose branches are very loose and 

 irregular, they have given "rise to the term muscarium; a name 

 formerly used by Tournefort, but not now employed. 



If the expansion of an apparent corymb is centrifugal, in- 

 stead of centripetal ; that is to say, commences at the centre, 

 and not at the circumference, as in Dianthus Carthusianorum, 

 we then have the fascicle {Jig. 8S.) ; a term which may not 

 incorrectly be understood as synonymous with compound co- 

 rymb. The modern corymb must not be confounded with that 

 of Pliny, which was analogous to our capihdum. 



When the pedicels all proceed from a single point, as in 

 Astraiitia, and are of equal length, or corymbose, we have 

 what is called an vmbcl {Jig. 80.). If each of the pedicels 



