— s' — 
sistent pedicels, bearing one or two small bracts. The inflores¬ 
cence itself shows three different forms, and, according to these, 
the numerous species of this genus naturally are distributed in 
three different sections. 
The first section, Singulijlorce, to which our A. Virginica 
belongs, bears single flowers in a simple, generally slender spike, 
never crowded as the spikes of the next section are ; each flower . 
is borne in the axil of a bract on a short pedicel, which is distin¬ 
guished by a single lateral bractlet. This bractlet i& normally 
sterile, but in monstrous inflorescences may produce secondary 
and tertiary flowers, which, however, can always be distinguished 
from those of the next section by never appearing in pairs.* 
The second section, Geminijiorce (gen. Littcea, Tagliab., Bo - 
napartea , Willd., non Ruiz & Pav.), comprises the species which 
produce flowers in pairs, crowded into a more or less dense spike. 
From the axil of each primary bract a short or rarely longer (e.g. 
A. Utahensis) peduncle originates, bearing two opposite lateral 
bracts (sometimes pushed somewhat towards the main axis), and 
in their axils the flowers on two short (rarely, e.g. in A. atte - 
nuata , Hort. Cels. Paris, 1869, longer) secondary pedicels with 
bractlets of the third order directed towards the primary bract. 
These bractlets occasionally bear a second pair of flowers with 
lateral bractlets of the fourth order, directed inward, and in the 
axils of these occasionally (A. attenuata) rudimentary flower- 
buds are seen. An internal perigonal lobe of the flowers of the 
primary pair is directed backwards and outwards, towards the 
margin of the primary bract, and an external lobe towards the 
bractlet. In rare instances the primary peduncle does not ter- 
* I have a plant of this species growing, brought from the woods in this vicinity, which 
lateral bractlet usually bears a second flower on a similarly bracted pedicel; this second 
bractlet stands either on the dorsal (towards the principal bract) or on the ventral (towards 
the main axis) side of the little inflorescence; a third flower, if present, is not coeval nor 
of the second flower; if the antholytic development, which then is often combined with fas- 
ciation, proceeds, parts of the primary flower may become more or less detached and again 
'bear incomplete axillary flowers. — It may here be remarked that the flower of the Singuli- 
florag is so placed in regard to bract and axis, that an external lobe of the perigon and one 
two carpels towards the axis. That abnormal stock, however, produces sometimes towards 
the tip of the spike flowers without a pedicel and without a lateral bractlet; in these one 
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