76 



FLOWERS. 



[SECTION 8. 



This is the inflorescence of Caraway (Fig. 208), Parsnip, and almost all of 

 the great family of Umbelliferous (umbel-bearing) plants. 



215. The second- 

 ary or partial umbels 

 of a compound urn- 

 bel are Umbbllets. 

 When the umbellets 

 are subtended by an 

 involucre, this sec- 

 ondary involucre is 

 called an Ik volucel. 



216. A Compound raceme is a cluster of racemes 

 racemosely arranged, as in Smilacina racemosa. A 

 compound corymb is a corymb some branches of which 

 branch again in the same way, as in Mountain Ash. A 

 compound spike is a spicately disposed cluster of spikes. 



217. A Panicle, such as that of Oats and many 

 Grasses, is a compound flower-cluster of a more or less 

 open sort which branches with apparent irregularity, 

 neither into corymbs nor racemes. Kg. 209 repre- 

 sents the simplest panicle. It is, as it were, a raceme 

 of which some of the pedicels have branched so as to 

 bear a few flowers on pedicels of their own, while 

 others remain simple. A compound panicle is one that 

 branches in this v/ay again and again. 



218. Determinate Inflorescence is that in which the flowers are from 

 terminal buds. The simplest case is that of a solitary terminal flower, as 



in Fig. 210. This stops the growth of the stem ; for its terminal bud, be- 

 coming a blossom, can no more lengthen in the manner of a leaf-bud. Any 



Fig. 208. Compound Umbel of Caraway. 



Fio. 209. Diagram of a simple panicle. 



Fig. 210. Diagram of an opposite-leaved plant, with a single terminal flower 

 811. Same, with a cyme of three flowers; a, the first flower, of the main axis: b b. 

 those of branches. 212. Same, with flowers also of the third order, c c. 



