162 
nUDIMENTS OF THE NATURAL SYSTEM OF BOTANY^ 
There is another mode of flowering, in which, beyond the main stem or 
peduncle that directly supports the flowers, a quantity of smaller branches are pro- 
duced from that, these again divaricating more or less, and taking the name of 
pedicels. When such pedicels all diverge from the same point, and are of uniform 
length, they compose what is designated an umbeL The little lateral ramifications 
of a general umbel are, on account of their diminutiveness and dependency, called 
umbellules. Umbelliferous, or umbel-bearing plants, may be illustrated by the 
garden parsley or carrot, the fool's parsley, and many other indigenous weeds. 
A simple flower-stem, rising erectly, and having the blossoms disposed imme- 
diately around its axis without any pedicels, has received the name of a spike. It 
is one of the simplest and most universal forms of flowering. If the individual 
blooms on this common spike have each a separate pedicel, it is then called a raceme, 
which is either perpendicular or drooping. Neither of these must, however, be 
confounded with the scape, which term applies to those peduncles that rise at once 
from the ground, and produce the flowers towards their extremities. A spike is said 
to be imbricated when the blossoms grow densely, each circle of flowers lying over 
those just above them, after the manner of inverted tiles. 
Some flowers, again, are borne on a fleshy axis, and enveloped in a large 
spathaceous bract. Where this exists, the inflorescence is termed a spadix. It is 
peculiar to one or two Natural Orders, and must be familiar to every one in the 
wild Arum. 
The varieties of raceme are numerous ; but the only other one we shall notice is 
that called the verticillaster, which is a remote modification of the panicle. In the 
latter, instead of the flowers appearing singly from the points of simple pedicels as 
in the true raceme, the pedicels are more or less branched. Should the axis or middle 
stem be itself branched before coming to a regular termination, this is described as 
a deliquescent (literally dissolving, but referring here to the unusual divarication 
and the consequent absence of a general axis) panicle ; and where a deliquescent 
panicle has very short branches, arranged corymbosely or with a tendency in the 
flowers situated nearest the centre of the branch to expand first, such a peculiarity 
is distinguished as a cyme, of which the elder and laurustinus are examples. But 
the cyme is, in some cases, imperfectly developed, and bears but a few flowers, as in 
the mint, and all plants of that description. This, then, is what is known by the 
term verticillaster. 
Perhaps the strobilus, or cone, is more properly a kind of fruit. Yet, as it 
necessarily produces flowers in the same arrangement, it may be regarded as a real 
form of inflorescence. In some of its characteristics it resembles the amentum, but 
has exclusively female flowers, every one of which is protected by a large perma- 
nent scale. It gives the name of Coniferse to a Natural Order, among the members 
of which the noble genus Pinus may be mentioned as being the most easily 
recognisable. 
From the arrangement of the flowers, we advance to their more particular parts, 
