136 



THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



stem, the "radicle " or root, and the cotyledons or leaves of 

 the future plant ; when the seed has but one cotyledon it 

 is called " monocotyledonous " and when it has two 

 " dicotyledonous." 



Flowers are arranged in various ways upon the plants 

 which produce them, and receive names accordingly ; the 

 whole arrangement of flowers is called the "inflores- 

 cence." 



The following are the principal forms of inflores- 

 cence : 



The UMBEL, in which all the flower- 

 stalks (pedicels) radiate from 

 one point, as in the carrot (dau- 

 cus carota) . Umbels are some- 

 times compound, that is, the 

 flowers are placed in umbels at 

 the end of stalks themselves 

 radiating from a point and so 

 forming an umbel, as in the 

 Hemlock (Coniummaculatum). 



Hemlock. 



The SPIKE, is that kind of inflores- 

 ence in which all the flowers 

 are seated without stalks upon 

 a general peduncle or axis, as 

 in the Plantain (Plant ago 

 media), in which the spike is 

 entire, or as the Lavender (La- 

 vandula Vera), in which the 

 spike is interrupted, that is, the 

 inflorescence is not continuous. 



Plantain. 



