THE INFLORESCENCE, AND THE FLOWER 223 



flowers in which only one or the other occur are called " male " or " female." 

 It is better to call them staminate and pistillate. All the old terminology of the 

 flower has been based upon a misconception. It should be clearly understood 

 that there has been an error of description. It is almost impossible to eradicate 

 that error without discarding much of the current terminology, which it is 

 hardly necessary to do provided that the difliculty is clearly understood. 

 The early writers suffered from an imperfect knowledge of fact, and a want 

 of proper comparisons. For our present purpose those comparisons cannot 

 be made intelligible till certain plants lower in the scale have been examined. 

 At the moment the conclusion must be stated without the detailed grounds 

 for it. It must suffice to say here that the sporangia of the Higher Plants 

 produce spores (pollen-grains, and embryo-sacs), and it is from these that the 

 actual sexual organs originate. But neither stamens nor carpels, nor pollen-sacs 

 nor ovules^ are themselves organs of sex. They are all parts of the neutral plant, 

 specialised in relation to the sexual organs which it is their ultimate function to 

 produce. 



The Inflorescence. 



The Flower defined as above is usually marked off from the vegeta- 

 tive system that bears it as a definite unit. When borne singly, as 

 in the Tuhp or Buttercup, no one has any doubt what is meant by 

 the term. But such units are often borne in large numbers together 

 upon a common branch-system, or Inflorescence, as in the trusses of a 

 Horse-Chestnut, or a Lilac ; and sometimes the flowers of an inflores- 

 cence are so closely packed together that the whole may be mistaken 

 for a single flower, as in the Daisy. It is thus necessary to analyse 

 the branch-systems that bear the individual flowers. 



The Inflorescence often presents marked features, and as these recur 

 in related forms they have their value in classification. The methods 

 of branching in an inflorescence, which are often very complicated, are 

 the same as those found in the vegetative region. Here as there 

 axillary branching prevails. The leaf, in the axil of which a flower bud 

 arises, is usually small and simple by reduction ; sometimes it is 

 abortive. These reduced leaves are termed Bracts. Where they 

 are borne upon axes of relatively higher order they are com- 

 monly smaller, and are styled Bracteoles. But there is no real 

 difference, except in their relation in the branch-system. The bracts 

 serve to protect the buds while young. The production of many 

 flowers together, so as to form a conspicuous group, even though the 

 flowers may be individually small, brings advantages in mutual 

 protection ; but still more in relation to the transfer of the pollen. 

 In particular, a complicated branching not only gives the opportunity 

 for a larger output of seeds, but it may also provide a succession of 



