INFLORESCENCE. 



139 



The SPADIX is that form of inflor- 

 escence in which the expanded 

 bract, called a spathe, forms a 

 sort of sheath inclosing the 

 flowers. This spathe is white 

 in the example given, and is 

 often mistaken for part of the 

 flower itself, as in the Wake- 

 rohin or Arum (Arum macu- 

 latum) . 



Arum. 



The vegetable kingdom is divided into three great natural 

 families, the Acrogense, the Endogenae, and the Exogense. 



The acrogenous plants are those which as a general rule 

 have neither branches, leaves, nor flowers ; they are almost 

 wholly made up of cellular tissue, and are many of them so 

 minute that they are quite invisible individually to the 

 unassisted eye, and are among the most wonderful works 

 of the Creator, having an amount of beauty in form and 

 elaboration of ornament bestowed on them, quite equal to 

 anything among the higher and larger creations, and yet 

 some of these are so small that tens of millions may be 

 placed in the space of a cubic inch, of such are the Diatomaceae 

 and Desmidiacese. 



The acrogens take an immense range in the scale of 

 organisation, from the ferns (which appear but little inferior 

 to the exogense or endogenae, have stems and leaves, 

 and in some cases, as in hot and moist climates, assume 

 the size and form of a tree), to the very lowest state 

 of vegetable existence, consisting of simple cells uniting 

 into strings or forming simple threads, such as the 

 green algse which form on stagnant waters and damp 

 ground or wood-work, and the mould or mildew which 

 forms on all decomposing substances. The general name 

 for these acrogens, " cryptogamia," which has been in use 



