154 
NATURE NOTES 
appears to do so ; because when the leaf-bud, below the 
inflorescence, begins to elongate, it pushes the terminal flower- 
stalk to one side, and finally replaces it ; so that if a bough of a 
horse-chesnut be carefully examined, successive years’ growths 
can easily be made out lying in one continuous straight line, 
each “joint,” having borne a terminal bunch of flowers in the 
spring. 
The same thing occurs in the vine, both as regards flower- 
ing branches and tendrils, for these are really terminal ; but 
the bud in the axil of the leaf below them grows out into the 
same straight line as the main stem ; so that the flowering 
branch or tendril appears to spring from the side and thus 
assumes a position opposite to the leaf. 
The vine affords a good illustration of a change of use ; for 
a flowering branch or inflorescence is homologous with a 
tendril. The student should search for intermediate conditions, 
in which tendrils will be found bearing a few flower-buds, and 
in proportion to the number of buds thus formed does the 
tendril begin to lose its sensitiveness for climbing purpose^, 
as described in the case of the pea. 
The tendrils of the Virginia creeper [Ampelopsis hederacea) are 
also really flowering branches, converted to a different use ; 
but in this case they turn towards the darker side, as they 
climb walls. The student should compare them with those of 
another species from Japan (A. Veitchii), which clings more 
closely and does not produce the long pendulous streamers of 
the American sort. In this latter kind the tendrils end in little 
hooks which catch into depressions of a rough surface. The 
contact then causes them to swell into adhesive pads by which 
the tendril is fixed to the wall. 
In the case of A. Veitchii the pads are partially developed 
before contact, but are only completed after pressing against the 
surface of the support. 
Another curious modification and use of an inflorescence is 
seen in a fig. In a plant of the same family to which the fig 
belongs, called Dorstcnia, the inflorescence consists of a flattened 
out extremity of the stalk, something like a dish. On the 
surface are numerous minute flowers. If the edges of the 
dish be supposed to be caught up to form a bag, with the 
hole at the top, we get the fig, which now carries all its flowers 
thickly distributed all over the inner surface. In this case, 
therefore, the whole inflorescence ultimately becomes the 
succulent fruit we eat ; the seed-like bodies in a fig being thus 
really the fruits of the little florets within the bag. 
In the mulberry, the male and female inflorescences are 
distinct and form separate “ catkins.” The female consists of a 
dense mass of flowers, 6ach having a four-sepaled calyx and 
pistil. When it becomes a fruit the sepals swell and turn 
purple, while the pistil forms a dry seed-like body in the 
middle ; so that, unlike the fig, the inflorescence forms a 
succulent fruit composed of calyces only. 
