332 APPENDIX II 



underground. In the Violets also, a pair of small, scale-like 

 leaves occur part ^ the way up the flower-stalk or peduncle. 

 Such simplified leaves are known as bracteoles. 



In a very large number of plants the flowers occur in special 

 groups, and then, instead of arising in the axils of ordinary 

 foliage leaves, they commonly arise in the axils of simplified 

 leaves, called bracts. Such aggregations or groups of flowers 

 are known as inflorescences. Inflorescences fall under two heads : 

 indejinite or racemose, and cymose. In the racemose iiiflorescence, 

 the main axis does not end in a flower, and thus its growth can 

 continue indefinitely. The older flowers are at the base, and 

 the younger near the apex. A simple inflorescence of this type 

 is called a raceme if each flower has a special stalk or pedicel 

 (cf. Plate XL VII., fig. 1), and a spike, if each flower is stalkless 

 or sessile, as in the Lesser Butterfly Orchid (Plate XXXI., fig. 2). 

 If the raceme is complicated by branching, we have the form 

 of inflorescence called a panicle. If the main axis of the 

 inflorescence is suppressed altogether, so that all the pedicels 

 start from one point, we get an umbel (cf. Plate XIII.) ; 

 and if the pedicels also are suppressed, and the flowers are 

 crowded together on a flattened expansion of the apex of the 

 peduncle, we have a head or capitulum (Text-fig. XXIX.). 



In the other type of inflorescence, the main axis terminates 

 in a flower, and the younger flowers appear below it as lateral 

 outgrowths. Such an inflorescence is known as a cyme. If 

 two lateral flowering branches grow out below the first flower, 

 we have a dichasium ; if there is only one, a monochasium. 

 When all the branches of a monochasium are developed on the 

 same side, a scorpioid cyme is produced. Of this type of 

 inflorescence the Forget-me-not is a good example. 



