CHAP. IT. 
INFLORESCENCE. 
129 
5. Of the Inflorescence. 
Inflorescence is a term contrived to express generally the 
arrangement of flowers upon a branch or stem. The part 
which immediately bears the flowers is called the pedunculus 
or peduncle, and is to be distinguished from any portion of a 
branch by not producing perfect leaves ; those which are 
found upon it called bracts being much reduced in size and 
figure from what are borne by the rest of the plant. 
The term peduncle^ although it may be understood to apply 
to all the parts of the inflorescence that bear the flowers, is 
only made use of practically, to denote the immediate support 
of a single solitary flower, and is therefore confined to that 
part of the inflorescence which first proceeds from the stem. 
If it is divided, its principal divisions are called branches; and 
its ultimate ramifications, which bear the flowers, are named 
pedicels. There are also other names which are applied to its 
modifications. 
In plants which are destitute of stem, it often rises above 
the ground, supporting the flowers on its apex, as in the 
Cowslip. Such a peduncle is named a scape (liampe, Fr.). 
Some botanists distinguish from the scape the pedunculus radi- 
calism confining the former term to the peduncle which arises 
from the central bud of the plant, as in the Hyacinth ; and 
applying the latter to a peduncle proceeding from a lateral 
bud, as in Plantago media. 
When a peduncle proceeds in a nearly right line from the 
base to the apex of the inflorescence, it is called the rachis, or 
the axis of the inflorescence. This latter term was used by 
Palisot de Beauvois to express the rachis of Grasses, and is 
perhaps the better term of the two, especially as the term 
rachis is applied by Willdenow and others, without much 
necessity it must be confessed, to the petiole and midril of 
Ferns. In the spikelets of Grasses the rachis has an unusual, 
toothed, flexuose appearance, and has received the name of 
scohina from Dumortier. If it is reduced to a mere bristle, 
as in some of the single-flowered spikelets, the same writer then 
distinguishes it by the name of acicula. 
When the part which bears the flowers is repressed in its 
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