176 OF THE INFLORESCENCE. 



Bot. t. 1289> nigrum,t. 1291, and Orobus sylva- 

 ticus, .518. A cluster is most generally drooping 

 or pendulous, and the flowers are all expanded 

 nearly at the same time. 



A compound racemus occurs in Solatium Dul- 

 camara, t. 565, and an aggregate one, several being 

 gathered together, in Act<za racemosa, Dill. Elth. 

 t. 67; but the example of a bunch of Grapes, 

 quoted by Linnagus for a racemus, appears to me a 

 true thyrsus ; see below. 



SPICA, f. 129, a Spike, bears numerous flowers 

 ranged along one common stalk, without any partial 

 stalks, as in Satyrium hircinum, Engl. Bot. t. 34, 

 Orchis bifolia, t. 22, Plant ago major ', t. 1558, 

 and media, t. 1559, Potamogeton heterophyllum, 

 /. 1285, axi&Jluitans, t. 1286; but this is so seldom 

 the case, that a little latitude is allowed. Veronica 

 spicata, t. 2, therefore, f. 1 30, and Ribes spicatum, 

 /. 1290, as well as the Common Lavender, Lava?i- 

 dula Spica, are sufficiently good examples of a 

 spike, though none of them has entirely sessile 

 flowers ; and Linnaeus uses the term in numerous 

 instances where it is still less correctly applicable. 

 A spike generally grows erect. Its mode of expan- 

 sion is much more progressive than that of the 

 raceme, so. that a long period elapses between the 

 fading of the lowest flowers and the opening of the 

 upper ones. The flowers are commonly all crowded 



