INTRODUCTION 
Texture 
Colour 
Duration 
Exceptional textures of leaves worthy of notice are the leathery 
character of most evergreens, such as Holly, Ivy, Yew, and Heaths ; and 
the thick fleshy character of those of plants distinctive of 
dry situations. Such are the House-leek and Stone-crops, 
growing on walls, and many plants of the sea-shore, where, though water 
is abundant, its salt renders it useless for plant-nutrition. 
The most striking colour characters among our British plants, in 
addition to the glaucous surface of sea-side plants just mentioned, are 
the dark green of the upper surfaces of most evergreens ; 
such snowy whiteness as the downy under surface of the 
leaves of the White-beam ; and the remarkable and unexplained purplish 
blotches on the leaves of Lords-and-ladies and some of our commoner 
Orchids. 
Lastly, in duration, we have every gradation, from the short-lived 
leaves of such annuals as Chickweed, which pass through their whole 
life-cycle in a few weeks, to the ordinary deciduous leaves 
of most of our northern trees, produced in spring and 
falling in autumn, such sub-evergreen leaves as those of Privet, which 
survive a mild winter, and true evergreens , which habitually remain on 
the tree until after a fresh crop has unfolded, as in Holly and Ivy. 
The needles of Pines and Cedars remain on for several years. 
Passing from those structures that are, as we have seen, mainly 
concerned with the nutrition of the individual to those connected with the 
^ production of seed, we find that these last are constructed 
T n on the same types or plans of stem, leaf, or hair as are 
Inflorescence . r 
those already described. The special region oi the plant 
or system of branches which bears the flowers is termed the inflorescence. 
If it springs direct from an underground stem, it is termed a scape ; and a 
scape may be one-flowered, as in the Tulip or Anemone, or many- 
flowered, as in the Cowslip, Lily-of-the-valley, and Daisy. 
Inflorescences of more than one flower are divided according to the 
order of development of their flower-buds and branches into three groups — 
racemose or indefinite , cymose or definite, and mixed. In the racemose type 
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