76 
INFLORESCENCE. 
flower as it appears before its perfect expansion ; at B, after 
that period. 
Interesting as is the subject of the various means contrived 
bj Providence for the continuation of the vegetable tribes, the 
limits of our work will not permit us to extend our inquiries 
in this department of our science. But if there are any who 
liold Botany to be a trifling science, let them examine into the 
grand principles which it develops, unfolding to the view of 
man the workings of Creative wisdom in one vast domain of 
nature. The greatest Botanist, in the midst of his discoveries, 
must experience a feeling of humiliation at his own ignorance 
of nature. Facts which, when discovered, seem so simple that 
we wonder a child should not have discovered them, have 
eluded the research of the wisest men ; — and at this moment, 
we doubt not, philosophers are groping for truths, which in 
due time will be elicited and incorporated into the elements of 
science, to be learned and understood by children. 
LECTUEE XIY. 
INFLORESCENCE. 
82. The arrangement of flowers upon their axis, or the branch- 
mg out of the floral axis^ is called Inflorescence or anthotaxu 
(from anthos^ flower, and taxis^ order). Elower-buds, like leat- 
buds, are produced in the axils of leaves which are called floral 
leaves or bracts. When the flower is forming, there is an ex- 
pansion horizontally while the perpendicular growth is check- 
ed. In respect to the development of flowers, two divisions 
have been made, viz., the centn'ijpetal and centrifugal inflores- 
cence ; in the centripetal^ the blossoming commences with the 
flower of the circumference or hase^ and proceeds toward the 
center, or summit, as in the carrot and cabbage ; in the centrif- 
ugal^ the central flowers open first, and the lower or external 
ones last, as in the pink. In these cases the bud which ter- 
minates the stem is transformed into a flower, and being the 
earliest formed, is the first to expand. The stem itself cannot 
elongate further, but new branches are developed in the axils 
of the bracts or upper leaves by the accumulation of nourish- 
ment. These are terminated by a solitary flower which again 
produces branches from the axils of its bracts in the same man- 
Reflection.— 82. Inflorescence— Centripetal and centrifugal. 
