SECT. IV. THE INFLORESCENCE. 135 



generic discrimination. If a flower of this descrip- 

 tion is taken and stripped of its individual florets, the 

 common receptacle will be laid bare. In Hdian- 

 thus annuus it is a large, flat, and fleshy disk ; in 

 the Artichoke it is concave ; in Tanacetum it is con- 

 vex ; in Bellis it is conical ; and in Leontondon it 

 is globular. Its surface is naked, as in Pyrethrum ; 

 or hairy, as in Carduus ; or bristly, as in Knap- 

 weed ; or chaffy, as in Car Una ; or warty, as in 

 Gnaphalium gallicum ; or dotted, as in the Dande- 

 lion ; or flawed with little cavities resembling the 

 cells of a honey-comb, as in Onopordum. 



But there are many plants which have their And 

 flowers placed upon a common receptacle, though 

 not syngenesious or compound ; such as the Willow, 

 the Grasses, the Fig, and Arum. In the Willow the 

 common receptacle is thread-shaped ; in the Grasses 

 it is linear, but flexuose ; in the Fig it is the pear- 

 shaped substance usually denominated the fruit ; 

 and in the Arum it is the club-shaped column issu- 

 ing from the bosom of the spathe. 



SECTION IV. 



The 'Inflorescence. 

 THE inflorescence, a term introduced by Linnaeus, Defini- 



is the peculiar mode of aggregation in which flowers 

 are arranged or distributed upon the plant, whence 

 it is called sometimes also the mode of flowering. 



