OF INFLORESCENCE. 13 



of bracts. In general those at the base of the raceme, 

 being older and more nourished, are the longest, and 

 they diminish in size as they approach the top. The 

 inverse takes place in a small number of cases ; thus, for 

 example, in Hyacinthus comosus the upper flowers are 

 sterile, with their pedicels coloured and very long, 

 forming a bunch or crown at the top of the raceme. 

 All the differences which we have just now seen found 

 in spikes when compared together, are also met with in 

 racemes, but without having any particular names. We 

 shall only say a few words on those which seem suffi- 

 ciently important to deserve special names. 



W e have already said that those racemes are called 

 compound, or branched, which are formed by the union 

 of several partial ones into one inflorescence. When 

 these, or their partial branches, are very long, much 

 branched, and diffuse, the name of Panicle (panicula) 

 is given to them collectively ; for example, in Kcclreute- 

 ria. If the axis be very short, and the branches very 

 long and diffuse, as is seen in Juncus, the inflorescence 

 has been designated by the name of Anthela. 



It sometimes happens in a simple raceme that the 

 lower pedicels are very long, and the upper very short, 

 whence it results that the flowers, although springing 

 from different points, nearly reach the same level. This 

 kind of raceme, confounded with other very different 

 inflorescences, has received the name of Corymb (co- 

 rymbus) ; the Ornithogalum, said to be umbellate, and 

 some species of Iberis, are examples of this. 



The same thing may happen in compound racemes, 

 either because the lower lateral branches or racemes are 

 longer than the upper, or because each of them, con- 

 sidered separately, presents the same phenomenon, as 

 to the length of its pedicel ; this disposition is observed 

 in Viburnum, the Elder, &c. ; to this also the name of 



