INFLORESCENCE. 15 



on a level. After flowering this usually becomes 



-35 v 



a perfect Race?iius. 



s. Fasciculus, a Tuft, is composed of numerous 

 level Flowers, on little stalks, variously connect- 

 ed and subdivided. 



6. Capitulum, a Head, consists of sessile Flowers, 

 crowded together into a globular figure, the cen- 

 tral, or terminal ones generally opening first. 



7. Umbella, an Umbel, is formed of several Stalks, 

 radiating from a centre, and nearly equal in 

 length, so as to compose a level, or convex, 

 rarely concave, surface of flowers. It is, in true 

 Umbelliferous plants, rarely simple, generally 

 compound, each Stalk, or Ray, bearing a Par- 

 tial Umbel, Umbellula. The Umbel in such 

 plants is termed flosculous, when the flowers are 

 all nearly equal and uniform ; radiant, when the 

 marginal ones are more or less irregular and un- 



o o 



equal. In other orders of plants the Umbel, if 

 present, is generally simple, but less perfect as 

 to the insertion of its stalks ; witness the orders 

 of Apocinea and Asckpiade&. In Euphorbia, 

 the General Umbel consists of stalks repeatedly 

 forked, not umbellate. 



o. Cyma, a Cyme, consists of several Stalks, spring- 

 ing from one common centre, like an Umbel, but 

 subdivided in an irregular, somewhat alternate, 

 mode, and forming a nearly level., or mostly 

 convex, surface of flowers. 



