220 



THE INFLORESCENCE. 



longed, it is flat or depressed, and dilated horizontally, so as to 

 allow a large number of flowers to stand on its level or merely 

 convex surface ; as in the Sunflower, and in similar plants. What 

 were called compound flowers by the older botanists, such as the 

 Sunflower, Aster, Marigold, &c., are heads of this kind, containing 

 a smaller or larger number of flowers, crowded together on the 

 receptacle (or dilated branch), and surrounded by an involucre. 

 Not unfrequently the separate flowers are also subtended by bracts ; 

 as in the Sunflower, Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, &c., when these re- 

 ceive the name of PALE^E, or CHAFF. (See Ord. Composite.) 



395. The FIG presents a case of very singular inflorescence 

 (Fig. 241, 242), where the flowers apparently occupy the inside 

 instead of the outside of the axis, being inclosed within the fleshy 

 receptacle, which is hollow and nearly closed at the top. The mag- 

 nified slice (Fig. 243) shows that the inner surface is lined, not 

 with mere seeds, as is commonly supposed, but with a multitude 

 of small blossoms. The fig is therefore something like a mulberry 

 (Fig. 244), or a pine-apple, turned inside out. 



242 



241 



396. In all the cases yet mentioned, the flower-clusters are sim- 

 ple ; the ramification not passing beyond the first step ; the lateral 



FIG. 241. A Fig. 242. A vertical section. 243. A thin slice from the same, magnified. 

 FIG. 244. The Mulberry in fruit. 245. One of the component flowers, magnified. 246. One 

 of the flowers with a section of the juicy floral envelopes. 



