DEFINITE INFLOEESCENCE. 



185 



sion a series ofbracts, from whicli the floral peduncles arise, and thus 

 each flower is on the same side of the true axis as the bract, in the 

 axil of which it is developed ; but in the uniparous cyme the flower 

 of each of these axes, the basal part of which unites to form the false 

 axis, is situated on the opposite side of the axis to the bract fronj 

 which it apparently arises (flg. 275). But this bract is not the one 

 from which the axis terminating in the 

 flower arises, but is a bract produced upon 

 that axis, and gives origin in its axil to 

 a new axis, the basal portion of which, 

 constituting the next part of the false 

 axis (as in' flg. 275), intervenes between 

 this bract and its parent axis. The 

 uniparous cyme presents two forms, the 

 (scorpio, a scorpion), and the 



heUcoid (sX/^, a spire, and 



sidog, form). In the scor- 



pioid the flowers are ar- 

 ranged alternately in a 



' double row along one side 



of the false axis (fig. 274),' 



the bracts when developed 

 Fig. 273. forming a second double Kg. 274. 



row on the opposite side, as seen in the Henbane ; the whole in- 

 florescence usually curves on itself like a scorpion's tail, hence its 

 name. In fig. 273 we have a diagrammatic sketch of this 

 arrangement. The false axis a b c d is formed by successive genera- 

 tions of unifloral axes, the flowers being arranged along one side 

 alternately and in a double row ; had the bracts been developed they 

 would have formed a similar double row on the opposite side of the 

 false axis ; the whole inflorescence is represented as curved on itself. 

 In fig. 274 (Forget-me-not) the same scorpioid form of uniparous cyme 

 is seen, with the double row of flowers on one side of the false axis, 

 but in this case the bracts, which should appear on the opposite side, 

 are not developed, and hence the cyme is not complete. 



In the helicpid cyme there is also a false axis formed by the basal 

 portion of the separate axes, but the flowers are not placed in 

 a double row, but in a single row, and form a spiral or helix round 

 the false axis. In Alstromeria, as represented in fig. 275, the axis, 

 a', ends in a fiower (cut off in the figure) and bears a leaf. Prom 

 the axil of this leaf, that is between it and the primary axis, a', arises 

 a secondary axis, a", ending in a flower /", and producing a leaf 

 about the middle. From the axil of this leaf, a tertiary floral axis, 



Fig. 273. Diagram to show the formation of a soorpioidal cyme, consisting of separate 

 axes, abode. Fig. 274. Scorpioidal or gyrate cyme of Forget-me-not (Myosotis palmtris). 



