BOTANIC A. 
IT 
fructification* but it is only mentioned by Linnaeus (in his 
Gen. PI.) when it can be introduced as a character varying 
in shape and surface, as principally in the class syngenesia. 
It hath the following distinctions; 
1st. A proper Receptacle* when it supports the parts 
of a single fructification only ; and when it is a base to which 
only the parts of the flower are joined* and not the germen* 
it is called a receptacle of the flower ; in which case, the ger- 
men being placed below the receptacle of the flower, hath a 
proper .base of its ow n, which is called the receptacle of the 
fruit; and it is called a receptacle of the seeds, when it is a 
base to which the seeds are fastened within the pericarpium 
(see bacca); in some simple flowers* where the germen is 
placed above the receptacle of the flower, the fruit hath a 
separate receptacle, as in magnolia , uvaria, &c. in wdiich 
genera the numerous germens are seated upon a receptacle* 
rising like a pillar above the receptacle of the fructification. 
Qd. A common Receptacle, called so because it sup¬ 
ports and connects a head of flowers in common, as in the 
amentum , and other aggregate flowers. 
3d. Umbella, (an umbel) which Linnaeus calls a recep- 
tacle.-^-See aggregate flowers. 
4th. Cyma (a sprout) is also called a receptacle.—See 
aggregate flowers. 
,5th. Rachis, (the back bone) a thread-form receptacle, 
collecting the florets longitudinally into a spike, in many of 
the glumose flowers, as wheat, barley, rye, &c. 
6th. Spadix (a branch of the palm) antiently only sig¬ 
nified the receptacle of a palm, issuing out of a spatha, and 
branched : but now every flower stalk that is protruded from 
a calyx called spatha, is called & spadix,%$ in narcissus, & c.-— 
See aggregate flowers. 
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