DISCS OF BLOSSOM 123 



so heavy a superstructure of broad foliage and massive 

 umbels can be safely upheld against the gales and thunder- 

 showers of the stormiest summer. It is extremely rare to 

 find any umbelliferous plant damaged by bad weather. 



Elders and all the tribe of flowering shrubs which spread 



COW-PARSNIP 



discs in the summer hedgerow bear not umbels but cymes 

 or corymbs, which are more imperfect expressions of the 

 same principle. If we lift up one of the lagging clusters of 

 creamy elder flower, we see that the stems which bear the 

 separate clusters of blossom are of very different lengths. 

 The larger branchlets in the cluster are equally irregular. 

 The peculiar ingenuity of the cyme is the way in which the 



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