|->C 



OF INFLORESCENCE. 37 



rather thick, and become thinner, or at least part with 

 a considerable portion of their store, during that period ; 

 therefore care is taken to select those for culinary pur- 

 poses before this takes place. Those of the Chicoracea* 

 empty themselves very early ; those of the Cinarocephalae 

 remain a longer time fleshy, but at maturity they only 

 present a tissue resembling an empty pith ; in some the 

 inverse takes place, as in the Fig, which becomes fleshy 

 on approaching maturity. It is, perhaps, worthy of 

 remark, that in all plants with milky juice, the recep- 

 tacle, at the period of flowering, is full of a juice of a 

 different nature ; thus the Fig, and the receptacles of 

 all the milky Compositae, are filled with this juice before 

 flowering, and cease to receive it or form it after that 

 period has commenced. 



The receptacles are sometimes in the form of a cylin- 

 der or elongated cone, as in the eapitula of spiked 

 flowers — Dipsacus and Eryngium, for example ; some- 

 times in that of a short cone, or simply convex, as in a 

 great number of Compositae or Dipsaceae ; sometimes 

 flat, or even slightly concave, as in most Compositae and 

 in Dorstenia. Sometimes the margins of the receptacle 

 are elevated, and cover the flowers ; we see this in Dor- 

 stenia : it is more decided in the Fig, where they en- 

 close all the flowers in a kind of envelope, with a very 

 small opening at the top. 



At maturity, the receptacles undergo changes of 

 form, which facilitate or cause the fall of the seeds. 

 Flat or convex ones become raised in the centre, and 

 thus throw off the seed; concave ones open by the 

 reflection of their margins, as is seen in the Fig when 

 left to itself, and still more in Ambora. 



Peduncles which arise from a stock which is under 

 ground, or on a level with the surface, have received the 

 particular name of Scapes (scapl); they only differ 



