INFLORESCENCE. 



33 



the whole, the simplest explanation of the tendril of the Melon is, that, unlike that 

 of the Pea and other Leguminosse, it represents a leaf, reduced to one or more of 

 its nerves : thus, when simple, it represents the petiole and mid-rib ; when branched, 

 it represents the principal nerves of the leaf, which are themselves palinately divided. 

 In the Vine (fig. 130) the tendril is leaf-opposed, and formed of a branching peduncle 

 (v, v), of which the pedicels are suppressed, but which sometimes bears imperfect 

 flowers. 



INFLORESCENCE. 



This term (inflorescentia) is used in two senses, signifying both the arrange- 

 ment of the flowers upon a plant, and a collection of flowers not separated by leaves 

 properly so called ; the latter being the more special meaning of the term. 



The organs of inflorescence 

 are, (1) the supports of the flowers, 

 peduncle, pedicel, receptacle ; (2) the 

 bracts (bractew), or altered leaves, 

 from the axils of which the floral 

 axes spring, and which are altered 

 in colour and form, as they ap- 

 proach the flower ; these are some- 

 times absent (Stock and other 

 Oruciferce) . 



The peduncle (pedunculus) is a 

 branch directly terminated by a 

 flower; and its extremity forms 

 the receptacle (receptaculum) . This 

 name is also given to a more or less 

 branched flowering axis, differing 

 in appearance from the rest of the 

 stem, bearing bracts, and of which the ultimate divisions are called pedicels 

 (pedicelli). 



Bracts vary in shape ; they are usually small (Currant, fig. 132), and inay be thin, 

 transparent, and membranous (br. membranacece) ; or thin, dry, stiff, coloured, and 

 scarious (br. scariosce, Geranium) ; or coloured, like petals (Bugloss) ; they are very 

 large in the Lime (fig. 131), which is peculiar in having the peduncle adnate to the 

 midrib of the bract, and, though really axillary to it, appearing to rise from its 

 centre. 



The primary axis of the inflorescence is the common peduncle, whence spring 

 the secondary, tertiary, &c. axes, according to their order of development. 



The inflorescence is axillary (inf. axillaris], when the primary axis, instead of 

 terminating in a flower, is indefinitely elongated, and the flowers are borne upon 

 secondary axes, springing from the axils of its leaves (Pimpernel, fig. 30) ; it is 

 terminal (i. terminalis), when the primary and secondary axes both terminate in 

 a flower (Poppy, Columbine, fig. 31). 



123. Currant. Simple 



131. Lhne. Bract joined to the peduncle. 



