126 



FLOWER-LAND. 



Fig. 107. Compound umbel with 

 umbel lules. 



wheat and barley, in which secondary spikes (spikelets) 

 are arranged along the floral axis, instead of single 

 flowers (cf. Fig. 83^, p. 1 02). 



The umbel* both the 

 simple umbel and the 

 compound umbel with 

 its umbellules or little 

 umbels, you have al- 

 ready learnt about 

 (p. 43). (Fig. 107.) 



The capititlum \ 

 or head of flowers is 

 composed of many sessile, or almost sessile flowers, 

 placed close together upon the receptacle (p. IO/J of 

 the main stem, and the whole surrounded by an in- 

 volucre (as in the teasel, Fig. 142). Sometimes 

 the receptacle is hollowed ^out, sometimes it is raised 

 and rounded. Compare them in the dandelion 

 (Fig. 138), daisy (Fig. 37,^46), and other composite 

 flowers (p. 48). Each flower is called a floret : those 

 of the centre, as in the daisy, form the "disk" those 

 of the circumference form the "ray." 



The cyme.\ Perhaps the best way to understand 

 this kind of inflorescence will be to look at a plant in 

 which the main axis or stem terminates in a flower. 

 The common mouse-ear chick weed (Cerastium) will 



* From the Latin " tiinbella, " a little shadow, from " tunbra" a. shade, 

 a shadow, whence also our word " umbrella." 



t From the Latin " capnt," a head. 



I From the Latin " cyma" a shoot or branch, young sprouts. 



