DEFINITIONS OP TERMS 15 



The term ghmd is applied not only to the small, ■waxy, shining, usually 

 colored, dots found on leaves, etc., but also to the variously shaped, wart- 

 like or shield-like bodies found on petioles, pedicefs, petals, sepals, etc.; 

 to small translucent vescicles in the leaves, petals, etc., filled with oil, 

 usually readily seen with transmitted light; and to lobes of the disk or 

 other excrescences in the flow or. 



THE INFIORESCENCE.— By the inflorescence, we mean the flowers and 

 their arrangement on the plant. Flowers may be solitary or variously 

 grouped. When a sihgle flower or group of flowers terminates a branch 

 it is called terminal; when borne in the axils of the leaves, axillary; 

 when borne on the internodes between the nodes or axils, extra-axillary; 

 when borne opposite a leaf, leaf -opposed; when borne on the stem below 

 the leaves, cauline; and when borne on the root, radical. 



Solitary flowers may be sessile when seated on the axil or other support 

 without any supporting stallc, or pedicelled when supplied with a stalk 

 or pedicel. A stalk that bears a cluster of flowers is called a peduncle, and 

 the individual gtalks of the flowers are called pedicels. 



There are numerous forms of inflorescences, and these have received 

 special names. A spike or spicate inflorescence is thai kind where the 

 flow^s are sessile along a simple undivided ■ axis or rachis; a raceme or 

 racemose inflorescence is similar to a spike, but the flowers are pedicelledj 

 a panicle or paniculate inflorescence is where the axis or rachis is divided 

 regularly into branches which bear two or more flowers, and is usually 

 more or less open; an umbel or umbellate inflorescence is where the flowers 

 are pedicelled and all spring from the apex of the peduncle, the branches 

 arranged like the ribs of an umbrella ; a head or capitate inflorescence is 

 where the flowers are sessile and crowded in a dense globose mass; a 

 corymb or corymbose inflorescence is where the branches and pedicels, 

 although starting from different points, all attain the same level, the 

 lower branches and pedicels being longer than the upper ones, the inflores- 

 cence having a flat or nearly flat, top, the outer flowers opening first; a 

 cyme or cj/mose inflorescence is similar to a corymb, but the inner flowers 

 open first; a fascicle is where the flowers are sessile or pedicelled and^ 

 crowded, usually axillary; ^, catkin or ament is a short or long,' usually: 

 dense, scaly spike; a spadie is a dry or fleshy spike with small flowers, 

 the whole commonly surrounded by an enveloping organ called the spathe, 

 as in the taro (gabi) and the Araceae in general. 



Flowers and inflorescences are frequently supplied with small or large, 

 often leaf-like organs, known as bracts and bracteoles. . In general bracts, 

 when present, are found under each branch and branchlet of the inflores- 

 cence, while bracteoles are borne on or at the base of the pedicels of the 

 flowers. .When several bracts are collected in a whosl, that isj. spreading 

 radiately from a, single node, loosely or closely enveloping an inflorescence 

 or a flower, they are collectively called the involucre. Glumes are the 

 usually dry bracts enclosing the flowers in the grasses and sedges. Paleae. 

 are the inn^r chaff-l:ke scales in the heads of certain Compositae, the 

 inner scales of grasses, the scales on the rootstocks and stipes of ferns, etc. 

 THE 'S'liOWEK. — A complete flower consists of four sets of organs, the 

 two outer rows or whorls, kiiown as the. floral envelopes, consisting of 

 the calyx and the corolla and collectively known as the perianth, and two 

 inher rows or whorls, the essential organs, consisting of the stamens and 

 pist%ls. The axis of a flower, or that part on which the various organs 

 are inserted is called the receptacle. 



