174 INELOKESCENCE OE ANTHOTAXIS. 



accounts for the extra -axillary position of flowers, as in many 

 Solanacese. When this union extends for a considerable length along 

 the stem, several leaves may be interposed between the part where 

 the peduncle becomes free, and the leaf whence it originated, and 

 it may be diflBcult to trace the connection. 



The peduncle occasionally becomes abortive, and in place of bear- 

 ing a flower, is transformed into a tendril (p. 120) ; at other times it 



is hollowed at the apex, so as apparently 

 to form the lower part of the outer 

 floral envelope, as in Eschscholtzia. 



The termination of the peduncle, or 

 the part on which the whorls of the 

 flower are arranged, is called the Thala- 

 mus or Torus. The term receptacle \s 

 also sometimes applied to this, whether 

 expanded and bearing several flowers, 

 or narrowed so sis to bear one. It may 

 be considered as the growing point of 

 the axis, which usually is arrested by 

 the production of the flowers, but which 

 ■^' ^^ sometimes becomes enlarged and ex- 



panded. Thus, in the Geranium, it is prolonged beyond the flower 

 in the form of a beak; in the Arum it is a club-shaped fleshy 

 column (fig. 260, 2, a) ; in the Strawberry it becomes a conical 

 succulent mass, on which the seed-vessels are placed; while in 

 Nelumbium it forms a truncated tabular expansion, enveloping the 

 seed-vessels. In some cases it bears naked seeds. In some monstrous 

 flowers, as in Rose and Geum, it is prolonged as a branch bearing 

 leaves (fig. 247). The flowers follow a spiral course round the floral 

 axis, which is subject to laws similar to those which regulate 

 phyllotaxis ; this is easily traced in such plants as Banksia. 



There are two kinds of inflorescence — one in which flowers are pro- 

 duced in the axil of leaves, beyond which the axis continues to 

 elongate and bears leaves and flowers ; whilst in the other the axis 

 ends in a single terminal flower. In the former the flowers are 

 axillary, the axis extends in an indefinite manner, and the flowers, as 

 they successively expand, spring from floral leaves placed higher on 

 the axis than the leaf from which the first flower was developed. In 

 the latter the single solitary flower terminates and arrests the axis, 

 and the flowers developed subsequently, arise from floral leaves below 

 this central flower, and therefore farther removed from the centre. 

 The first kind of inflorescence is Indeterminate, Indefinite, or Axillary. 



Fig. 251. Upper part of flattened or fasclated flowering stem of Celosia cristata (Cocks- 

 com6), having the form of a crest, covered with pointed bracts, and supporting flowers on 

 its summit. 



