304 MORPHOLOGY. 



A number of flowers, again, may be so collected together that they 

 appear more closely grouped, and assume a collective form. We must 

 first look at the simplest case as the basis, and this is afforded by the 

 progressive development. In a bud are formed internodes, which are 

 parts of one axis (here called rachis, or better peduncle, whereby one 

 useless word will be got rid of ), together with the leaves belonging to 

 them, and in the axil of every leaf a bud which develops into a 

 simple flower. In the rudimentary condition the internodes are unde- 

 veloped, but this development is something coming into action at a sub- 

 sequent period ; consequently, the inflorescence which is simplest and 

 nearest to the solitary flower, is the capitulum, an axis composed of 

 undeveloped internodes, with an axillary (flower) bud, the first internode 

 of which is not elongated. From this basis are developed all other 

 simple forms of inflorescence. The slightest possible alteration is the 

 development of the internodes of the peduncle. If this happen in the 

 longitudinal direction, the inflorescence is a spike (fares in pedunculo 

 elongato) ; if horizontally, a calathium (flores in pedunculo disciformi] ; 

 if the expansion take the form of a cup, it is a Fig (/lores in pedunculo 

 concavo)* ; lastly, if the peduncle elongate and become at the same time 

 very fleshy, it is a club, spadix (Jlores in pedunculo elongato carnoso). 

 But these forms do not constitute distinct members of a series : they pass 

 almost insensibly one into the other ; even the distinction between capi- 

 tulum and calathium is not capable of being maintained, and those 

 between spike, spadix, and capitulum (e. g. the capitulum elongatum) 

 are just as uncertain. 



The second are the internodes of each single flower, which may be 

 developed in the same way ; attention has hitherto been paid only to the 

 one condition of development in lengthf, in the first internode between the 

 axis and floral parts (the pedicel J). By this a capitulum becomes an 

 umbel ; a spike, a raceme. The raceme and spike may then be again more 

 closely defined, according as the flowers stand spirally (e. g. spica spiralis 

 in Gymnadenia odoratissima) ; in whorls (e. g. spica verticillata, in 

 Myriophyllum verticillatum) ; pinnate or two-ranked (?); one-ranked 

 (e. g. racemus monostichus in Myosotis palustris^) ; or lastly, all turned 

 in one direction (e. g. racemus secundus in Digitalis purpurea), &c. 



The pedicel is an internode of the floral axis, and in fact the one or 

 more occurring between the axil of the leaf of the axis, on which the 

 flower is situated, and the first foliar organs of the flower, or the last 

 internode between the last leaf or bracteole and the terminal flower-bud. 

 This internode may remain undeveloped just like a branch-bud (flos 

 sessilis), or become more or less elongated, or even acquire a fleshy con- 



* This only differs in a relative manner from the calathium. Link (El. Ph. Bot. ed. 2. 

 vol. ii. p. 75.) gives as the distinction, that in the Fig the calyx communis is wanting, 

 whence it would appear that he has never examined one ; and when he says that it 

 originates from blended inferior calyces (that is, inferior ovaries), the words have no 

 sense ; since Ficus, like all its allies, has perfectly superior ovaries, and the flower is 

 even stalked inside the Fig. Nothing whatever is blended here. The cup-shaped 

 peduncle in the Fig is simple from its origin, and is so for a long time before any trace 

 of a flower can be seen. When the flowers are in the condition of buds, it is still 

 smooth, and only closely covered by the involucrum, as in the Composite. 



f Whether any other occurs at the time of flowering I do not know. 



\ Another proof of the want of logical acuteness which one meets with in all 

 manuals. It is the gravest error in scientific terminology to have two words for one 

 thing (pedunculus and pedicettus for the internode beneath a flower), and then to apply 

 one of these words to a widely different object (pedunculus to the axis on which flowers 

 are situated). 



