THE INFLORESCENCE. 



85 



and lateral ramification is not fundamental j and, again, where true dicho- 

 tomy exists it is rare for the two divisions to be developed in the same 

 manner. In some scorpioid cymes one division "becomes a flower-bud, 

 the other repeats the ramification of the axis. 



Modifications of the Inflorescence. In certain cases we have 

 the normal condition of the inflorescence greatly disguised, as in 

 folictceous peduncles, and in cases of what is called fasciation, as 

 also where the flower-stalks are apparently removed from their 

 usual place by adhesion of various kinds and degrees. 



Fig. 156. 



Fig. 155. 



Fig. 155. Foliaceous peduncles of Ruscu* 



avuleaius. 



Fig. 156. Foliaceous flowering branch of 

 Xylophylla. 



In many kinds of Cactus, as 

 already noticed (p. 38), the stem 

 assumes more or less the outward 

 aspect of a leaf; and when a 

 flower springs from such a stem, 

 it looks like an abnormal growth ; 

 but it is really produced from 

 the terminal or axillary bud of 

 an al or';ive branch. In the 

 Butchers-broom (Ituscus, fig. 

 155) the single branches or pe- 

 duncles are flat leaf-like plates, 

 and bear the flowers in the axils 

 of little scales or reduced leaves 

 which arise on the upper surface, 

 seemingly from tho midrib of a 

 leaf ; but these foliaceous pedun- 

 cles grow from the axils of scale- 

 like leaves (fig. 155 *). In XylopTiylla (fig. 156) we find a compound 

 foliaceous peduncle, consisting of a large leaf-like branch bearing 

 numerous flowers on its margins, arising there in the axils of bracts. 



Fasciation is usually an abnormal condition, consisting of the develop- 

 ment of a large number of buds in close approximation, and the conse- 

 quent congenital fusion of a number of peduncles (or in some cases leafy 

 shoots) into a solid mass, bearing the flowers on the borders. It produces 

 the crest-like condition of the flower-stalk of the garden Cockscomb j and 

 converts a paniculate inflorescence into a ribbon-like axis. 



Adhesion, or want of separation of the peduncle from the leaf or bract, 

 produces an appearance as if the flower sprang from the latter, as in the 

 case of the Lime-tree. A similar union or, rather, lack of separation 

 between the flower-stalk and the branch, the former being in such cases 

 often raised above its normal level by the growth of the latter, produces 

 extraaxillary inflorescence, as in some species of Solanum. Where the 

 inflorescence is placed opposite to a leaf, as in the case of the Vine, 

 &c., the inflorescence is in reality terminal (as may readily be seen 

 in the young state) ; but as growth goes on it bends downwards into 

 nearly a horizontal position, while the axillary bud next beneath it deve- 



