CHAP. II. 
INFLORESCENCE. 
153 
believed that cases of such irregularity are caused by the 
peduncle, which is axillary to a leaf, contracting an adhe- 
sion with the internodium above it, and not separating till it 
is opposite the succeeding leaf. Flowers of this kind are 
called oppositifolii. 
The term peduncle^ although it maybe understood to apply 
to all the parts of the inflorescence which bear the flowers, is 
practically only made use of to denote the immediate support 
of a single solitary flower or the whole mass of inflorescence, 
and is therefore confined to that part of the inflorescence 
which first proceeds from the stem. If it is divided, its prin- 
cipal divisions are called branches ; and its ultimate ramifica- 
tions, 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 Cow- 
slip. Such a peduncle is named a scape (hampe^ Fr.). Some 
botanists distinguish from the scape the peduncidus radicalism 
confining the former term to the peduncle which arises from 
the central bud of the plant, as in the Hyacinth ; and apply- 
ing 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 inflores- 
cence, 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 to the petiole and midrib of Ferns. In the 
spikelets of Grasses the rachis has an unusual, toothed, flexu- 
ose 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 distin- 
guishes it by the name of acicula. 
When the part which bears the flowers is repressed in its 
developernent, so that, instead of being lengthened into a 
rachis, it forms a flattened area on which the flowers are 
arranged, it becomes what is called a receptacle ; or, in the 
language of some botanists, the receptacle of the flower {Jig. 72,) 
