38 EPIPHYLLOUS INFLORESCENCE [CH. 



superposed, in the axils of bracts, just as accessory 

 leaf-buds occur elsewhere (see Vol. i. p. 37), e.g. Malva 

 sylvestris. 



In Yucca gloriosa the racemes have two collateral 

 flowers in each bract- axil, and superposed flowers occur 

 in OEnothera rosea, Fuchsia gracilis, &c. Moreover, one 

 or more of the accessory buds may develope into a 

 leaf-shoot, as in Clematis recta, &c. 



Some of the most striking peculiarities of inflorescences 

 are due to concrescence between the bracts and the flower- 

 stalks i.e. their tissues grow up together united into 

 a common mass and various degrees of complexity may 

 occur here. 



One of the simplest cases is that of the Lime, where 

 the general peduncle is united about half-way up the bract 

 of its own axis (Fig. 106). This is carried further in many 

 epiphyllous inflorescences e.g. species of Helwingia, 

 Polycardia, Phyllonoma, Erythrochiton, Phyllobotryum, 

 Chailletia, Spathicarpa, Spathantheum, &c., where the 

 flowers appear to spring directly from the surface of 

 the leaf. 



These cases must be carefully distinguished from 

 flowers borne in the axils of minute scale-like bracts 

 on flattened axillary shoots (cladodes) as in Butcher's 

 Broom (Fig. 94), a point of the more significance since 

 both forms occur in species of Asparagus and Ruscus. 



It not unfrequently happens that the lamina of the 

 concrescent bract is not developed below, but only where 

 it becomes free, and the peduncle thus appears with a 

 bract somewhere along its length, above its insertion, and 

 shows no sign of being axillary e.g. Samolus Valerandi, 

 &c. These cases of displaced bracts are by no means 

 uncommon and give rise to curious difficulties in the 

 analysis of inflorescences, especially in the Solanacese, 



