FLOEAL FORMS AND THEIR RELATIONS TO INSECTS 317 



single flowers. In the Limes (Tilia) the long bracts remain on the trees till 

 the fruit is ripe, and fall with it (fig. 341). They serve the purpose of 

 wings, and materially assist the wind in dispersing the seed. Whether the 

 curious accrescent bracts of Neuropeltis racemosa, an Indian plant belonging 

 to the Bindweed family (Convolvulacese), subserve a similar purpose, we are 

 not in a position to say. 



In the Grasses the outer scales of the spikelets are called glumes, the 

 inner pales or palece. One 

 of our common cereals may 

 be taken as an example. 

 Here (fig. 383) is a branched 

 inflorescence or panicle of 

 the Common Oat (Avena 

 saliva], consisting of a pe- 

 duncle and pedicels, with 

 a flower-containing spikelet 

 at the end of each. To the 

 right of the panicle one of 

 the spikelets is shown 

 separately, on a larger scale, 

 the glumes are the outer 

 scales, while the inner scales 

 are the pales. The long 

 bristle-like appendage with 

 which one of these inner /" 

 scales is furnished is known _ 

 as the beard or awn. 



All inflorescences resolve 

 themselves naturally into 

 two great divisions. When, 

 as in the Pink (Dianthus), 

 Buttercup (Ranunculus], 

 Gentian (Gentiana), etc., a 

 single flower ends the prim- 

 ary axis, which is thereby 

 arrested in its growth and 

 does not elongate, fresh 

 flowers being produced from 

 separate axes and expanding 

 after the central flower, then 

 we have what is known as 

 a definite inflorescence. 

 When, 011 the Other hand, FlG - 384. GIANT ARUM (Amorphallus titanum). 



The enclosing spathe is nearly six feet across, whilst the central spadix 

 are produced is six feet high. Its leaves are sometimes forty-five feet in circumference. 



