76 INFLORESCENCE. 



to what grass we alluded, or it might not be found in all sec- 

 tions, 6ut by carefully applying the following description to a 

 specimen, the student will be enabled to apply his knowledge, 

 by a little patience and perseverance, to other genera. Let 

 us take a specimen of the Crab-grass. We find it consisting 

 of three spikes of flowers. The flowers of each of these 

 spikes we find arranged on one side of a common support 

 called rachiSf in two rows. If we take one of these spikes 

 and bend it, we see the flowers, which before lay so closely to 

 the stem, separate from it and exhibit themselves as little spike- 

 lets of about a half an inch long. By examination we find that 

 each of these spikelets is composed of two flowers. One of 

 these flowers we will take for examination. Instead of com- 

 mencing with the outer envelops, as is common with other 

 flowers, we will commence at the centre. We find at the 

 centre the ovary, stamens and pistils; and immediately sur- 

 rounding the ovary we find two opposite membranous bracts 

 which we shall call Palecs, as tlie highest authority of the 

 present time gives them this name. Elliott calls them the co- 

 rolla, and by different authors they have the names of calyx, 

 perianthium, gluma interior, perigonium and gluma. Within 

 the Palese of some grasses, as the Bromus, there are two 

 small h3'^pogynous, fleshy, colorless scales, which are called 

 squamiilcB. Elliott calls them nectaries; and in other cases, 

 instead of thesquamulae are found bristles, as in the Cyperacece, 

 called hypogynous setcB. Without the paleae of our specimen 

 of Digitaria, we find two bracts enclosing the others, which 

 are called glumes ; the calyx, gluma exterior and tegmen 

 of authors. The glumes do not always enclose a single flow- 

 er, but most generally are at the base of the spikelet, and en- 

 close many flowers, as in some of the Panicums there are two, 

 and in the Bromus several. In some instances there are 

 many glumes with no flowers, as in the Schoenus, the lower 

 ones being empty. The student may adopt as a general rule 

 that those bracts immediately surrounding the stamens and 

 pistils are Palece, and all others Glumes. 



Inflorescence, 



87. The manner in which flowers are arranged on the flow- 

 er-bearing stem or branch is termed Inflorescence. From the 

 fact that all floral organs are modifications of leaves, and have 

 the same origin, it follows, of course, that primarily they have 

 the same arrangement, however modified this arrangement 

 may become in the course of development. By observation 



