VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER I. 



OF THE INFLORESCENCE, OR THE DISPOSITION OF THE 

 FLOWERS OF PHANEROGAMOUS PLANTS. 



I designate, with botanists, under the name of the 

 Inflorescence, the collective distribution of the 

 flowers of a plant ; or, as Rceper calls it, that part of 

 the stems or branches which bears no other branches 

 but the floral axes. This term must be distinguished 

 from that of the Flowering, which means only the 

 expanding of the flowers ; the study of the inflorescence 

 forms an essential part of Organography, that of flower- 

 ing is essentially physiological. 



The organs of the inflorescence are the supports of 

 the flowers comprised under the name of Peduncles, 

 or Pedicels, and the accessory envelopes of the flowers, 

 or the Bracts. We shall commence by first examin- 

 ing the general disposition of the flowers, and afterwards 

 study separately their supports and envelopes. Through- 

 out the whole of this chapter, we shall be principally 

 guided by the excellent Memoire of Turpin ; by the 

 ingenious ideas which Mr. Robert Brown has occa- 

 sionally advanced upon this subject in different places 

 in his works, particularly in his remarks upon the Com- 

 posite ; and by a very remarkable Memoire, which 

 M. Rceper has been so kind as to communicate to me ; 

 and lastly, by several observations of my own. 



