152 
ORGANOGRAPHY. 
BOOK 1. 
being inserted at different heights may not be apparent. 
(See Ann, des Sc. v. xxiii. p. 226.) 
The flower, when in the state of a bud, is called the alabas- 
trus (bouton of the French) ; a name used by Pliny for the 
rose-bud. Some writers say alabastrum, forgetting, as it 
would seem, that that term was used by the Romans for a 
scent-box, and not for the bud of a flower. Link calls the 
parts of a flower generally, whether united or connate, moria, 
whence a flower is bi-polymorious (Elem., 243.) ; but I know of 
no other writer who employs these terms, which indeed are 
superfluous. 
The flowers of a capitulum, small, and somewhat different 
in structure from ordinary flowers, are called florets (flosculi ; 
elytriculi of Necker ; fleurons of the French). 
The period when a flower opens is called its anthesis ; the 
manner in which its parts are arranged, with respect to each 
other, before the opening, is called the (estivation. .^Estivation 
is the same to a flower-bud as vernation is to a leaf-bud : 
the terms expressive of its modifications are to be sought 
in Glossology. This term aestivation is applied separately to 
the parts of which a flower may consist; thus, we speak of the 
aestivation of the calyx, of the corolla, of the stamens, and 
of the pistil; but not of the aestivation of a flower col- 
lectively. 
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 normal position of the inflorescence is axillary to a 
leaf, the necessary consequence of its being a kind of branch- 
ing. But in some plants, especially of the natural order 
Solanacese, it grows apparently opposite the leaves. It is 
