FLORAL SYMMETRY, ETC. 



135 



Suppose that, at each stage of the branching in 

 Fig. 285, one of the divisions is regularly suppressed, 

 as shown in Fig. 287, where the dotted lines take the 

 place of the absent branches, the cyme is apparently 

 changed into a one-sided raceme, and the flowers seem 

 to expand in the same way as in the indefinite raceme. 

 In opposite-leaved plants bearing this kind of inflo- 

 rescence, the leaf or bract opposite the flower shows 

 that the raceme is definite ; but when, as in Fig. 288, 



FIG. 287. 



FIG 288. 



there is no such bract, it is not easy to decide whether 

 the cluster is definite or indefinite. However, the 

 one-sided mode of branching gives the stem a coiled 

 appearance, which is characteristic of the false or 

 cymose raceme, and has led to the name scorpioid 

 which is sometimes applied to it. 



You may know a cymose umbel by observing 

 that its oldest flowers are in the centre of the cluster 



