MEMBERS OF PLANTS. 



to another, it is said this arises from the regular theo- 

 retical lengthening of the stem upwards being checked 

 till the opposite leaf expands, a check that is uniform 

 in the seed-leaves of those plants which have two seed- 

 lobes. I submit to any reader endowed with common 

 sense, that this is not science, but fanciful romance, of 

 similar character to Van Helmont's Archneus and Dar- 

 win's gnomes and sylphs, though it is loudly trumpeted 

 forth as being founded on rigid and accurate observation. 



THE FLOWER-STALKS AND INFLORESCENCE. 



UNNECESSARY intricacy, if not baneful confusion, as 

 it appears to me, has been introduced into Botany, by 

 giving a variety of names to the flower-stalk l in vari- 

 ous species. Some flowers have no flower-stalk, and 

 are termed sitting. 



Flower-stalks are either simple, supporting only one 

 flower, as in wood anemone; or supporting more 

 flowers than one upon stalklets 2 , as in the cowslip and 

 lilac. 



Simple flower-stalks may either spring from the 

 root, from the stem, or from a branch, and be either 

 solitary, or more than one together, as in the black 

 mullein. 



Compound flower-stalks may be variously arranged 

 and named, but I shall follow Professor Roper of Bale, 

 as the most modern, if not the best, in the midst of 

 much confusion. Roper considers the modes of flow- 

 ering 3 as consisting of an evolution, which may be 



(1) In Latin, Pedunculus, and unnecessarily Scapus, Rachis, &c. 

 (2) In Latin, Pedicelli. (3) In Latin, Inflorescentia, 



