76 OBJECT LESSONS IN BOTANY. 
times sessile (or without stalks); and that they may arise 
from terminal buds, or from axillary. With the meaning of 
the words terminal and axillary you were made acquainted 
in Lesson IX. 
148. The stalk which supports the flower, or the cluster of 
flowers, we call peduncle. Now the peduncle may be either 
simple, bearing a single flower, or divided into branches and 
bearing a cluster of flowers. In the latter case, the branches 
or branchlets are called pedicels. 
144. When the peduncle arises from terminal buds it 
seems like a continuation of the main stem, as in Foxglove, 
Horse-chestnut ; and when from axillary buds, it comes out 
from the side of the stem just above a leaf, as in the Cur- 
rant. Sometimes it arises from the root or some under- 
ground part of the stem, and then we generally call it a 
scape. Thus the flower-stalk of Tulip is a scape; also of the 
Dodecatheon. 
145. The flower is said to be sol¢tary, not only when alone 
on the plant, but also when alone in the axil of a leaf, as in 
Fuchsia, Morning-glory, Petunia. 
146. Among clustered flowers, you will often meet with 
the following twelve varieties of inflorescence, which we 
must now try to represent and describe. We begin with the 
spike, such a cluster as we see in the Plantain, Mullen, &e. 
We may define it thus: A long peduncle (called rachis), 
having sessile flowers arranged along its sides. But before 
we go further with inflorescence, we must examine the bracts 
which accompany it. 
148. Please define peduncle; also pedicel. 
144. When are the flowers terminal? axillary? Define scape. 
145. Why is the flower called solitary in Fuchsia, Petunia, &.? 
146. Define a spike. Explain to us the rachis. 
