196 LESSOIfS WITH PLANTS 



imitates a head. A true head, however, is corymbose (or opens 

 from the outside, 185 a). Cymose heads are .known as fascicles 

 and glomerules. 



2256. The teacher and pupil will now see that there are two ideas 

 concerned in the study of the arrangement of flowers, — the general 

 mode, method, or type of arrangement, and the particular kinds of 

 clusters to which designative names have been given. To the mode of 

 arrangement (whether cymose, corymbose, racemose, solitary, and 

 the like) the name inflorescence is given. The word anthotaxy fliter- 

 ally "flower arrangement") has the same signification, and is now in 

 frequent use, and etymologically it is preferable. Anthesis is prac- 

 tically equivalent to "flowering." It would be improper, therefore, to 

 speak of a cyme as an inflorescence : it is a flower-cluster ; but one 

 could say that the inflorescence of the basswood is cymose or deter- 

 minate. 



226. If one were -to examine the inflorescence 

 of the Norway maple (Fig. 50), or of the horse- 

 chestnut or lilac, he would observe that the an- 

 thesis is mixed. In the horse-chestnut and lilac, 

 the general branching is of the indeterminate 

 kind, as indicated by the pointed form of the 

 cluster ; but the side branches are more or less 

 determinate. Heavy clusters like these are described 

 under the general name of thyrse. They are really 

 dense panicles, and it is impossible to draw any 

 hard and fast line between the one and the other. 



227. We have now learned the names which 

 are currently given to the different forms of flower- 

 clusters; but the most important lesson to be de- 

 rived from the study is the fact that the excep- 

 tions may be the rule. That is, there are no forms 

 so rigid that they may not be variously modified 



