FLOWERS : THEIR PARTS. 



63 



its branches. The plan of a cyme is illustrated in the following figures. Fig. 

 150, to begin with, is a stem terminated bj a flower, which plainly comes from 

 a terminal bud or is a terminal flower. Fig. 151 is the same, which has started 

 a branch from the axil / 



of each of the uppermost 

 leaves ; each of these 

 ends in a flower-bud. 

 Fig. 152 is the same, 

 with the side branches 

 again branched in the 

 same way, each branch 

 ending in a flower-bud. 

 This makes a cluster 

 looking like a corymb, as 

 shown in Fig. 143 ; but observe that here in the cyme the middle flower, a, 

 which ends the main stem, blossoms first ; next, those flowers marked h ; then 

 those marked c, and so on, the centre one of each set being the earliest ; while in 

 the corymb the blossoming begins with the outermost flowers and proceeds regu 

 larly towards the centre. The Elder, the Cornel, and the Hydrangea (Fig. 169) 

 have their blossoms in cymes many times branched in this way ; that is, they have 

 "compound cymes. 



190. A Fascicle is only a close or very much crowded cyme, with very short 

 footstalks to the flowers, or none at all, as the flower-cluster of Sweet- WiUiam. 



Plan of the Cyma. 



§ 2. Forms and Kinds of Flowers. 



191. The Parts of a Flower were illustrated at the beginning of the book, in 

 Chapter I., Section I. Let us glance at them again, taking a different flower for 

 the example, namely, that of the Three-leaved Stonecrop. Although small, this 

 has all the parts very distinct and regular. Fig. 153 is a moderately enlarged view 

 of one of the middle or earliest flowers of this Stonecrop. (The others are like it, 

 only with their parts in fours instead of fives.) And Fig. 154 shows two parts of 

 each sort, one on each side, more magnified, and separated from the end of the 

 flower-stalk (or Receptacle), but standing in their natural position, namely, below or 

 outside a Sepal, or leaf of the Galyx ; then a Petal, or leaf of the Corolla ; then a 

 Stamm ; then a Pistil. 



