SPRING FLOWERS 121 



years, and a little consideration will show that it does not repre- 

 sent a shoot which has grown continuously from year to year 

 giving off lateral flowering branches. It is rather made up, 

 as is the case with the underground stems of many herbaceous 

 perennial plants, of the basal region, of each annual growth. The 

 growth is always continued by a lateral shoot, since the main 

 shoot has continued into the flowering stem. 



'The long-stalked leaves at the base of the shoot have wide 

 sheathing bases, and in the axil of each is a bud. The leaf-stalk 

 is slightly channelled above and convex below. It bears a 

 number of pairs of small stalked leaflets, and ends in a 

 similar but larger leaflet. The leaf-blade is thus not a simple 

 or unbranched one, but is compound or branched. Since the 

 leaflets stand on either side of a main stalk, they are called pinnae, 

 and the whole leaf is described as pinnate from the general re- 

 semblance to a feather. This is a very common arrangement of 

 the leaflets in compound leaves, and may be compared with 

 the similar disposition of the main lateral veins in many simple 

 leaves. 



The cylindrical flowering stem has distinct internodes separ- 

 ating the leaves borne upon it. These have practically no leaf- 

 stalk, the lowest pair of pinnae standing close to the leaf-base. The 

 leaflets are long and narrow as compared with those of the lower 

 leaves. In the axils of these leaves are buds, which may remain 

 undeveloped, or in stronger plants grow out into branches ending 

 like the main shoot in an inflorescence. 



Above the uppermost leaf comes a bare region of stem, and 

 toward the end of this the flowers are crowded together. Their 

 association on a special region of the shoot renders the 

 group of flowers more conspicuous than the flowers would be 

 singly. The inflorescence here consists of a number of flowers 

 borne laterally on the main stem. This does not itself end on a 

 flower, but grows on, producing flowers in regular succession. 

 The youngest buds are thus found at the top of the inflorescence, 

 the lowest flowers being the oldest and the first to open. Though 

 the flowers correspond to lateral branches of the main stem, no 

 trace of the leaf which we might expect to find beneath each is left. 



An inflorescence such as this, in which the growth of the main 



