LESSON 11.] INDETERMINATE INFLORESCENCE. 



77 



species. The plant reproduces itself in new individuals by seed. 

 Therefore the seed, and the fruit in which the seed is formed, and 

 the flower, from which the fruit results, are named the Organs of 

 Reproduction or Fructification. These we may examine in succes- 

 sion. We begin, of course, with the flower. And the first thing to 

 consider is the 



196. Inflorescence, or the mode of flowering, that is, the situation 

 and arrangement of blossoms on the plant. Various as this arrange- 

 ment may seem to be, all is governed by a simple law, which is 

 easily understood. As the position of every leaf is fixed beforehand 

 by a mathematical law which prescribes where it shall stand (192), 

 so is that of every blossom ; and by the same law in both cases. 

 For flowers are buds, developed in a particular way ; and flower- 

 buds occupy the position of leaf-buds, and no other As leaf-buds 

 are either terminal (at the summit of a stem or branch, 42), or 

 axillary (in the axil of a leaf, 43), so likewise 



197. Flowers are either terminal or axillary. In blossoming as 

 in vegetation we have only buds terminating (i. e. on the summit of) 

 stems or branches, and buds from the axils of leaves. But while 

 the same plant commonly produces both kinds of leaf-buds, it rarely 

 bears flowers in both situations. These are usually either all axil- 

 lary or all terminal ; giving rise to two classes of inflorescence, 

 viz. the determinate and the indeterminate. 



198. Indeterminate Inflorescence is that where the flowers all arise 

 from axillary buds; as in Fig. 155, 156, 157, &c. ; and the reason 

 why it is called indetermi- 



nate (or indefinite) is, that 

 while the axillary buds 

 give rise to flowers, the 

 terminal bud goes on to 

 grow, and continues the 

 stem indefinitely. 



199. Where the flowers arise, as in Fig. 155, singly from the 

 axils of the ordinary leaves of the plant, they do not form flower, 

 clusters, but are axillary and solitary. But when several or many 

 flowers are produced near each other, the accompanying leaves are 

 usually of smaller size, and often of a different shape or character; 

 then they are called bracts ; and the flowers thus brought together 



FIG. 155 Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia) of the gardens, with axillary flower* 



7* 



