AND ORNAMENTAL TREATMENT. 19 



The plant is, from the freedom of its growth, its large and handsome leaves, and long 

 waving tendrils, one eminently adapted to art purposes. In fig. 92 we have a conventional 

 treatment of it from an early 14th century MS., in the British Museum — " Le live de la Chasse," 

 by Gaston Ph6bus, Comte de Foix. The berries, tendrils, and leaves are all well introduced in a 

 carving, filling a hollow moulding, Rouen Cathedral. We find it again in the carving beneath 

 a bracket (14th century period) in Hawton Church, Nottinghamshire : this is an especially 

 beautiful example ; also round a small capital in the same church. A very good treatment of it 

 again in a capital (decorated period) at Guisborough Abbey, Yorkshire. Holbein has introduced 

 the plant in two of his pictures — one a portrait of Sir Henry Dudley ; the other, of John Res- 

 kinner : both pictures are in the Royal collection at Windsor. We have ourselves endeavoured 

 to embody something of the spirit of the plant in the two designs marked 94 and 95 respectively — ■ 

 the first being for flat decoration, the second for work in relief ; while, in the lower figure on plate 

 39 (%• 319). we have a very beautiful mediaeval rendering of it from Southwell Minster. 



It will be understood that figs. 87, 88, and 93, are enlarged views of the parts represented; 

 their natural size is shown in fig. 89. 



The inflorescence of plants is a feature not to be neglected by the ornamentist. Inflorescence 

 is a term used to express the arrangement of the flowers (from the Lat infloresco, I begin to 

 blossom), and is equivalent in meaning to the term modus florendi, or manner of flowering, used 

 by the earlier botanists. If we examine such flowers as the Dwale (Atropa Belladonna, fig. 274), 

 the trailing Periwinkle ( Vinca major), the large Hedge Convolvulus (Calystegia septum), or the 

 Broom (Sarothamnus scoparius, fig. 97), we find single flowers given ofl^ at more or less regular 

 intervals from the axils of the leaves, and the shoot continuing its length indefinitely. Plants 

 having this growth are said to have their flowers solitary or axillary. Single flowers are said to. 

 be terminal when at the summit of a stem, as in fig. 9, the Snowdrop ( Galanthus nivalis), or the 

 Coltsfoot (Tussilago Farfara). In some plants, especially in those having erect stems, the central 

 axis terminates with the inflorescence ; the intervals between the flowers are small, and the 

 floral leaves (bracts), by their rapid diminution in size, give to the whole a tapering form. If the 

 individual blossoms have no stalks (pedicels), but are attached at once to the central stem, this 

 form of flowering is called a spike ; but if the blossoms thrown off" from the central axis have 

 stalks, it is called a raceme. The flowers of the spike, may be very close together, as in the 

 Plantain (Plantago major), or at some considerable interval, as in the Agrimonia Eupatorium, or 

 Herb Agrimony (fig. 249), or again in the Plantago sparsifolia; very frequently the lower ones are 

 much further apart than the upper, as in the Yellow Rattle (Rhinanthus crista-galli, fig. 233). 

 The flowers composing the spike may be in pairs : or whorls, as in Myriophyllum verticillatum, 

 the Whorled Water Milfoil ; singly, in a line, one over the other, all being thus on one side only 

 of the floral axis, as in Spartina stricta ; or singly, with a spiral arrangement, as in the Vervain 

 ( Verbena officinalis). All these features, though found in one form of inflorescence, the spicate, 

 are worthy of consideration, as, ornamentally, these modifications each give a different character 

 and effect. 



A raceme, as we have seen, resembles a spike, except that the flowers are on pedicels, and 

 these pedicels, to make the inflorescence truly racemose, must be all of nearly equal length ; Vicia 

 sepium, the Bush Vetch (fig. 129), the Mignonette (Reseda odorata), or the Red QMxxasA. ( Ribes 

 rubrum) are examples. If, instead of being of nearly equal length, the lower pedicels are very 

 much longer than the others, so as to bring the flowers approximately to one level, thus forming a 

 more or less flat-topped mass of blossoms, the resulting form is called a corymb ; the inflorescence 

 of the Bryony (fig. 89) is corymbose. We see it also in the Goldilocks (Linosyris vulgaris), the 

 Ploughman's Spikenard (Inula Conyza), the Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), and many other plants. 

 Another modification of racemose flowering is seen in what is termed the panicle — it is practically 

 a compound raceme — where the pedicels are themselves again branched, instead of each support- 

 ing but one blossom. The paniculate form is very characteristic of grasses: the Oat (Avena 

 saliva), is a good and easily accessible example of it. We see it, too, in the Yellow Bedstraw 

 (Galium verum), the Sycamore (Acer pseudo-platanus), the Butterbur (Tussilago Petasites), and 

 numerous other plants. When this paniculate form presents a very dense head of flowers, it is 

 sometimes called a thyrsus, as in the Privet (Ligustrum vulgare), or Horse Chestnut (yEsulus 

 Hippocastanum ). 



The umbel is a very characteristic form of inflorescence : it is produced by all the pedicels 

 springing from one point, whence they radiate like a fan, or the ribs of an umbrella. Umbellate 

 inflorescence is seen in the Cherry (Cerasus communis), the Celandine ( Chelidonium majus, fig. 

 148), or the Flowering Rush (Butomus umbellatus). The umbel is called compound when each 

 ray of the primary umbel itself terminates in an umbel, as in the Fennel (Fosniculum vulgare), the 

 Hemlock (Conium maculatum), and many other plants. 



