BUDS AND BRANCHES 



minate. The simplest kind of each is the solitary, where 

 a single flower either terminates the main axis, as the 

 daffodil, trillium, magnolia, etc., or springs singly from 



the axils, as in the running peri- 

 winkle, moneywort, and cotton. 



349. — Solitary axillary inflo- 

 rescence of moneywort {after 

 Gray). 



266. Indeterminate Inflorescence 



is always axillary, since the pro- 

 duction of a terminal flower 

 would stop further growth in that 

 direction and thus terminate the 

 development of the axis. We have only to imagine the 

 internodes of such a stem or branch as that represented 

 in Figure 349 very much shortened, the leaves reduced to 

 bracts or wanting altogether, and flowers or flower buds at 

 every node, to have the 



267. Raceme, the typical flower cluster of the indefinite 

 sort. In such an arrangement the oldest flowers are, 

 necessarily, at the lower nodes, new 

 ones appearing only as the axis length- 

 ens and produces new internodes. 

 This will be made clear by examining 

 a flowering stalk of hyacinth, cherry 

 laurel {Primus caroliniana), shepherd's 

 purse, or any common weeds of the 

 mustard family that are generally to 

 be found in .abundance everywhere. 

 It will be seen that the lower buds 

 have already fruited in the last named, 

 and perhaps the pods have dehisced 

 and shed their seed before the upper 

 ones have even begun to unfold. 

 Notice the little scale or bract usually 35o. - Raceme of miik 



■' vetch {Astragalus). 



found at the base of the pedicel in 

 flower clusters of this sort (in the shepherd's purse it is 

 wanting). This is a reduced leaf, and the fact that the 

 flower stalk springs from the axil, shows 'it to be of 

 the essential nature of a branch. 



