FLOWER-BUD. 



37 



The following are the principal kinds of aestivation: valvate 151 ; valvate and 

 involute 156 ; imbricate 157 ; alternate 159 16 ; convolute 152 ; induplicate 155 ; 

 plicative 153 ; quincuncial 157 l58 ; supervolutive l54 ; vexillary lei . 



293. The modes in which the flower-buds are arranged are 

 called forms of inflorescence ; and the order in which they un- 

 fold is called the order of expansion. 



IX. INFLORESCENCE. 



294. Inflorescence is the ramification of that part of the 

 plant intended for reproduction by seed. 



295. The greater developement of some forms of inflores- 

 cence than of others, is owing to the greater power one plant 

 possesses than another of developing buds, latent in the axils 

 of the bracts. 



29 6. In consequence of flower-buds obeying the laws whieh 

 regulate leaf-buds, all forms of inflorescence must, of necessity, 

 be axillary to a leaf of some kind. 



297. Those forms which are called opposite the leaves, extra- 

 axillary^ petiolar or epiphyllous, and even the terminal itself, 

 are mere modifications of the axillary. 



298. The kinds of inflorescence which botanists more parti- 

 cularly distinguish are the following : 



299. When no elongation of the general axis of a plant takes 

 place beyond the developement of a flower-bud, the flower be- 

 comes what is called terminal and solitary ; Ex. Pseony. 



