106 MANUAL OF BOTANY 



These have received the name of palcce, or — to distinguish 

 them from certain floral leaves found in Grasses which are 

 known by the same name — they may be termed palece of the 

 reccpiaclc. 



The only other bracts which have received special names 

 are those found in plants of the Grass and Sedge orders. Thus 

 the partial inflorescence of a Grassj which is termed a locusta 

 ox spikelet, has at its base one or two bracts, which are called 

 glumes {fig. 203, gl, gl) ; while in the Cyperacese each flower 

 arises from the axil of one or two similar bracts. 



2. THE AXIS. 



The various kinds of branching that have already been 

 examined have been seen to be three — tlie dichotomous, the 

 monopodial or racemose, and the cymose, usually sympodial. 

 In the inflorescence we find the first of these doubtfully or not 

 at all represented ; we have therefore only to deal with the last 

 two. These are sometimes called Indefinite or Indeterminate 

 and Definite or Determinate respectively. In the former, the 

 primary floral axis is never terminated by a flower ; hence it 

 has the power of either growing in an upward direction, in the 

 same manner as a stem or branch has the power of elongating, 

 and thus adding to its length, or of dilating more or less hori- 

 zontally. There is consequently no necessary limit to the 

 growth of such an axis, and hence the name of Indeterminate 

 or Indefinite which is applied to it. Such an axis develops 

 flower-buds in acropetal succession as it continues to elongate ; 

 from them flowers are produced, and these, like the buds of a 

 stem or branch, are commonly situated in the axils of leaves 

 which are here called bracts, as we have seen. All the flowers 

 therefore of an Indefinite Inflorescence must be necessarily 

 lateral. This inflorescence is also termed monopodial. The 

 general characters of Indefinite, Indeterminate, or Monopodial 

 Inflorescences depend therefore upon the indefinite growth of the 

 primary axis ; while the ultimate axes which are developed 

 from it are terminated by flower-buds. In Definite or Deter- 

 minate Inflorescences, on the contrary, the primary axis is ter- 

 minated at an early period by the production of a flower-bud ; 

 such an axis has therefore a limit at once put to its growth in 

 an upward direction, and hence the names of Definite, Deter- 

 minate, or Terminal, applied to it. 



• Each of these primary divisions presents us with several 



