viii OUTLINES OF BOTANY. 



59. Sometimes, however, most or all the leaves of the plant are reduced to small scales, in 

 which case they do not appear to perform any particular function. The name of scales is also 

 given to any small broad scale-like appendages or reduced organs, whether in the flower or any 

 other part of the plant. 



60. Bracts (Bractece) are the upper leaves "of a plant in flower (either all those of the 

 flowering branches, or only one or two immediately under the flower), when different from the 

 stem-leaves in size, shape, colour, or arrangement. They are generally much smaller and more 

 sessile. They often partake of the colour of the flower, although they very frequently also 

 retain the green colour of the leaves. When small they are often called scales. 



61. Floral leaves or leafy hi acts are generally the lower bracts on the upper leaves at the base 

 of the flowering branches, intermediate in size, shape, 'or arrangement, between the stem-leaves 

 and the upper bracts. 



62. Braoteoles are the one or two last bracts under each flower, when they differ materially 

 in size, shape, or arrangement from the other bracts. 



63. Stipules are leaf-like or scale-like appendages at the base of the leaf-stalk, or on the 

 node of the stem. When present there are generally two, one on each side of the leaf, and 

 they sometimes appear to protect the young leaf before it is developed. They are, however, 

 exoteedingly variable in size and appearance, sometimes exactly like the true leaves except that 

 they have no buds in their axils, or looking like the leaflets of a compound leaf, sometimes 

 apparently the only leaves of the plant ; generally small and narrow, sometimes reduced to 

 minute scales, spots or soars, sometimes United into one opposite the leaf, or more or less 

 united with, or adnate to the petiole, or quite detached from the leaf, and forming a ring or 

 sheath round the stem in the axil of the leaf. In a great number of plants they are entirely 

 wanting. 



64. StipelltB, or secondary stipules, are similar organs, sometimes found on compound leaves 

 at the points where the leaflets are inserted. 



65. When scales, bracts, or stipules, or almost any part of the plant besides leaves and flowers 

 are stalked, they are said to be stipitate, from stipes, a stalk. 



§ 7. Infloresceiice and its Bracts. 



66. The Inflorescence of a plant is the arrangement of the flowering branches, and of 

 the flowers upon them. An Inflorescence is a flowering branch, or the flowering summit of a 

 plant above the last stem-leaves, with its branches, bracts, and flowers. 



67. A single flower, or an inflorescence, is terminal when at the summit of a stem or leafy 

 branch, axillary when in the axil of a stem-leaf, leaf-opposed when opposite to a stem-leaf. The 

 inflorescence of a plant is said to be terminal or determinate when the main stem and principal 

 branches end in a flower or inflorescence (not in a leaf-bud), axillary or indeterminate when all 

 the flowers or inflorescence are axillary, the stem or branches ending in leaf-buds. 



68. k. Peduncle is the stalk of a solitary flower, or of an inflorescence; that is to say, the 

 portion of the flowering branch from the last stem-leaf to the flower, or to the first ramification 

 oE the inflorescence, or even up to its last ramifications ; but the portion extending from the 

 first to the last ramifications or the axis of inflorescence is often distinguished under the name 

 of rhachis. 



69. A Scape or radical Peduncle is a leafless peduncle proceeding from the stock, or from near 

 the base of the stem, or apparently from the root itself. 



70. A Pedicel is the last branch of an inflorescence, supporting a single flower. 



71. The branches of inflorescences may be, like those of stems, opposite, alternate, etc. (32, 

 33), but very often their arrangement is different from that of the leafy branches of the 

 same plant. 



72. Inflorescence is 



centrifugal, when the terminal flower opens first, and those on the lateral branches are 

 successively developed. 



centripetal, when the lowest flowers open first, and the main stem continues to elongate, 

 developing fresh flowers. 



73. Determinate inflorescence is usually centrifugal. Indeterminate inflorescence is always 

 centripetal. Both inflorescences may be combined on one plant, for it often happens that the 

 main branches of an inflorescence are centripetal, whilst the flowers on the lateral branches are 

 centrifugal ; or vice versd. 



74. An Inflorescence is 



a Spike, or spicate, when the flowers are sessile along a simple undivided axis or rhachis. 



a Raceme, or racemose, when the flowers are borne on pedicels along a single undivided axis 

 or rhachis. 



a Panicle, or paniculate, when the axis is divided into branches bearing two or more flowers. 



a Head, or ca,pitate, when several sessile or nearly sessile flowers are collected into si 

 compact head-like cluster. The short, flat, convex or conical axis on which the flowers are 

 seated is called the receptacle, a term also used for the torus of a single flower (135). The very 

 compact flower-heads of Compositai are often termed compound flowers. 



