FLOWER -CLUSTERS AND -STEMS 



125 



ance of a panicle, and is usually so called, but it is really a 

 thyrse. Lilac is a familiar example of a thyrse. In some 

 cases, the main cluster is determinate and the branches are 

 indeterminate, as in hydrangea and elder. Such clusters also 

 are mixed clusters. 



260. Inflorescence. — The mode or method of flower 

 arrangement is known as the inflorescence. That is, the 

 inflorescence is cymose, corymbose, paniculate, spicate, 

 solitary. By custom, however, 



the word inflorescence has come 

 to be used for the flower-cluster 

 itself in works on descriptive 

 botany. Thus a cyme or a 

 panicle may be called an inflo- 

 rescence. It will be seen that 

 even solitary flowers follow either 

 indeterminate or determinate 

 methods of branching. 



261. The Flower-stem.— The 

 stem of a solitary flower is known 

 as a peduncle; also the general 

 stem of a flower-cluster. The 

 stem of the individual flower in 

 a cluster is a pedicel. 



262. In the so-called stemless plants (37) the peduncle 

 may arise directly from the ground, or crown of the plant, 

 as in dandelion, hyacinth (Fig. 186), garden daisy (Fig. 200). 

 This kind of a peduncle is called a scape. A scape may bear 

 one or many flowers. It has no foliage leaves, but it may have 

 bracts. In some cases, of course, the flowers are sessile, and 

 in others very nearly sessile (207). In Fig. 201, the little 

 fruits (following the flowers) are in close clusters in the axils 

 of the leaves. 



Review. — What is the homology of flower-branches? How is it 

 that flowers arc often borne in clusters? Explain what may be meant 



200. Scapes ol the I 

 English daisy. 



