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CULTIVATION AND ANALISIS OF PLANTS. 



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ily IFFERENCES in the mode of flowering or in the crcneral arrange- 

 ?nt of the blossoms along the stem or branches, mark the various 

 '•^J" " forms of inflorescence. When the flower that terminates the axis 

 .'l^r opens first, and the others in the order of their nearness to this one, the 

 iflorescence is called determinate, definite, or centrifugal, as in the 

 ^Wv^ ' " Hydrangea. When this order is reversed, and the first flower to bloom 

 is the one farthest from the terminal one, this being the very last, the inflo- 

 rescence is said to be indeterminate, indefinite, ox centripetal, as in the Gladiolus. 

 In a few genera the inflorescence partakes of both peculiarities, and is called 

 mixed, as in the Teasel, and also the Llati'is, familiarly designated Blazing Star. 

 Flowers, like buds, are known as terminal when they appear at the end of the 

 stem, as in the Parnassia (S); iv/iorled, when grouped around the stem in a circle, as 

 in the Mint; and axillary, when at the axils, as in the Pentstemon (45). 



The flowerstalk, when common to the whole cluster, is called a fed uncle, the indi- 

 vidual stalk of each separate flower being a pedicel, as in the Cardamine (47). When 

 the peduncle bears a single flower, the inflorescence is called simple, as in the Morning 

 Glory (56). When the peduncle with its flower springs directly from the root of the 

 plant, the inflorescence is called a scape, as in the English Primrose (84); and when 

 it has several flowers placed one above another and sessile (that is, without pedicels), it is 

 called a spike, as in the Veronica spicata (85), or spadix, which is a fleshy variety of the 

 spike, as in the vSpiranthus; raceme, where each flower of a cluster has its own pedicel 

 arranged along a lengthened axis, as in the Canadian Milk- Vetch (86); panicle, or 

 branched cluster, where each pedicel (itself a branch of the peduncle) again branches, as 

 in the Stellaria (87); corymb, where the lower flowers are on longer stalks, the inter- 

 mediate on shorter, and the top ones nearly or quite sessile, as in the Mountain Ash (88); 

 cyme, where the stalks are irregularly branched, but the flowers are nearly le^-el at the 

 top, as in the Dogwood (89); a fascicle is a cyme with the flowers crowded into a bundle, 

 whence the name, as in the .Sweet A\'illiam; a t;-loiiicriilc is a dense, compact cyme resem- 

 bling a head, as in the Cocklebur; iindn-l, where the flower-stalks spring, like so many 

 umbrella ribs, from a common center, and rise to about the same height, each bearing 

 its flower, as in the Milkweed (90); when, as sometimes happens, there is a smaller umbel 

 on each pedicel, instead of a single flower, the inflorescence is called a compound umbel, 

 as in the Carrot (91); when crowded in a dense mass and sessile, it is called a head, as 

 in the Button-bush (92); a catkin, or ament, is a spike enclosed in a deciduous scale, as in 

 the Hazel (93) ; a fliyrsus is a compact panicle of pyramidal shape, as a bunch of grapes 

 or the cluster of the Lilac. 





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