THE INFLORESCENCE. 75 



case in the Ac/ave, the Talipot and other Palms, which require a number 

 of years to bring them to the point of flowering, after which they die 

 away, like a bulb with a terminal inflorescence, the plant being some- 

 times propagated at the same time by oftsets from the axils of the lower 

 leaves. The inflorescence of other unbranched Palms, such as the Cocoa- 

 nut, is axillary, and thus may be repeated indefinitely. 



A flower-bud may be either sessile or stallced ; if the latter, the 

 stalk is called the peduncle. The branches of the peduncle or the 

 slender stalks bearing the individual flowers are called pedicels, 

 and that portion of the main flower-stalk or axis from which the 

 pedicels spring is sometimes called the rachis. 



Solitary flowers. The simplest forms of inflorescence consist 

 of solitary flowers, either terminal (as in the Tulip), or axillary, 

 when simple peduncles arise from the axils of ordinary leaves (as 

 hi Lysimactda, Nummularia, see also fig. 13, p. 23). 



The term scape (scapus) is applied to a stem devoid of true leaves, 

 arising underground from the terminal bud or from the axil of a scale or 

 leaf of a rhizome, bulb, &c. It may bear a single flower, as in the Tulip, 

 or a group of flowers, as in the Hyacinth, or a " head " of flowers, as in 

 the .Daisy, Dandelion, c. 



When solitary flowers arise in the axils of ordinary leaves, the flower- 

 leaf or bract-region of the stem is scarcely represented (fig. 13), or, at 

 least, does not differ from the true-leaf region ; but, generally speaking, 

 those parts of the stem which bear flowers are separated to a certain ex- 

 tent from the true-leaf region, and form a distinct association of parts, 

 representing the bract-region. In the flowering stems of annuals and 

 biennials it is often difficult to draw a line at the boundary of the true- 

 leaf region and the inflorescence, from the leaves passing insensibly into 

 bracts from below upwards, as in the Foxglove. 



Bracts. The leaves of the flower-leaf region of the stem are 

 called bracts. They are mostly smaller than the leaves preceding 

 them, usually simple, and often scale-like, or glumaceous, consisting 

 of the vaginal portion of the leaf only. In the generality of cases 

 they are green ; but not unf requently they are tinged with the same 

 colours as flowers (as in various Sages), or are even entirely petaloid. 

 In other cases they are membranous, and then often very transient 

 in their existence. The diminutive term bracteole is applied to the 

 small bracts which occur on the pedicels of certain plants, often 

 in pairs. 



The term bracteole is loosely applied by some authors to the smaller 

 bracts of a compound inflorescence ; but it is much more convenient to 

 use the term bract for all leaves which subtend branches of the inflo- 

 rescence, and to call those scales bracteoles which occur on an ultimate 

 pedicel, as in many Leguminosse. In Monocotyledons there is usually 



