THE KINSHIPS OF THU FLO WEB 197 



or broken, and we must not infer that those 

 forms to which we have given designative names 

 are type-forms from which the others have been 

 derived ; but that they have been named simply 

 because they are regular, and are, therefore, capa- 

 ble of definition. It is quite as probable that the 

 mixed inflorescences are more nearly type-forms, 

 in the sense of being original forms, than that 

 the definite and regular ones are. 



Suggestions. — The pupil should now examine any flower-cluster 

 which he meets. Look especially at the heads of composites, 

 the clusters of strawberries, grapes, blackberries, snowballs and 

 elders (Fig. 193). Endeavor to find a spike which begins to 

 flower at the top. Determine if the method of branching of 

 the cluster is in any way related to the branching of the plant 

 which bears it. 



XXXVII. THE KINSHIPS OF THE FLOWER 



228. We have already discovered (Obs. xxviii.) 

 that it is often difficult to determine just where 

 the leaves end and the flowers begin. That is, 

 there may be a gradation from foliaceous leaves 

 to bracts, to involucre or to calyx. The sepals 

 and petals bear so much resemblance to leaves 

 that they are popularly called the "leaves of the 

 flower," and their arrangement, particularly in the 

 bud, can often be expressed in definite phyllotaxy. 



