FLOWERS : THEIK AKKANGEMENT ON THE STEM. 



59 



and so on in regular succession. Now the place for buds is in the axils of the 

 leaves {axillary buds, 58), and at the end of the stem {terminal hud, 57) : so these 

 are also the places from which flowers spring. Fig. 138 is a Trillium, with its 



flower terminal, that is, from the summit of the stem. 

 Fig. 139 is a piece of Moneywort, with axillary flow- 

 ers, i. e. from the axils of the leaves. The Morn- 

 ing-Glory (Fig. 4) also has its flowers axillary. 



170. Solitary Flowers. In both these cases the 

 blossoms are solitary, that is, single. There is only 

 one on the plant in Trillium (Fig. 

 138). In Fig. 139, there is on- 

 ly one from the same axil ; and 

 although, as the stem grows on, 

 flowers appear in succession, they 

 are so scattered, and so accom- 

 panied by leaves, that they cannot 

 be said to form a flower-cluster. 



171. Flower-Clusters are formed 

 whenever the blossoms are more 

 numerous or closer, and the ac- 

 companying leaves are less con- 

 spicuous. Fig. 140 is a cluster 

 (like that of Lily of the Valley, 

 Fig. 3) of the kind called a 

 raceme. On comparing it with 



Fig. 139, we may perceive that it differs mainly in having the leaves, one under 

 each blossom-stalk, reduced to little scales, which are inconspicuous. In both, the 

 flowers really spring from the axils of leaves. So they do in all the following 

 kinds of flower-clusters, until we reach the Cyme. 



172. The leaves of a flower-cluster take the name of Bracts. These are gen- 

 erally very different from the ordinary leaves of the plant, commonly much smaller . 

 and often very small indeed, as in Fig. 140. In the figures 141 to 144, the bracts 

 are larger, and more leaf-like. They are the leaves from whose axil the flower 

 arises. Sometimes there are bracts also on the separate flower-stalks (as on the 

 lower ones in Fig. 140) : to distinguish these we call them Bractlets. 



138 



Terminal Flower. 



139 



Axillary Plowera. 



