30 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



bulbous plants) ; sometimes, finally, the stem, although 

 long, is buried under the earth or water, and produces 

 true leaves, which have, as usual, axillary peduncles ; 

 this takes place in Nymphcca, Utricularia, Sec. Thus the 

 various flowers said to be radical do not differ from 

 ordinary ones as to their anatomical origin. 



§ 3. — Lateral, or Extra-axillary Inflorescences. 



It is usually said, that flowers are lateral, supra- 

 axillar} r , or extra-axillary, when they seem to arise from 

 the stem beyond the axils of the leaves. This pheno- 

 menon ought to be referred to two classes : sometimes, 

 as in Solarium, it is a true anomalous development, ana- 

 logous to that which renders their leaves geminate : 

 sometimes it is a simple case of union ; the peduncle 

 which arises from the axil is sometimes intimately con- 

 nected with the branch which gives birth to it ; then the 

 flower or flowers which it bears seem, according to their 

 direction, to arise from the branch at the point where 

 the junction terminates : examples of this phenomenon 

 are found in different families, but it nowhere presents 

 a more singular appearance than in a small section of 

 Capparis (Capparides seriales), where the flowers are 

 arranged three, four, or five, in succession, in a longi- 

 tudinal series above the flower (PI. 16, fig. 2); this is 

 a unilateral spike adherent to the branch. 



§ 4. — Petiolary Inflorescences. 



Flowers are said to be petiolary when they spring 

 from the petiole of the leaf: this illusion takes place in 

 two cases, viz. with regard to the petioles of simple 

 leaves, and those of compound ones. 



