FRINCIPIA 
m 
THE DISTINCTION OR MODE OF FLOWERING: 
CALLED 
THE INFLORESCENCES 
Complete flowers f are either simple or aggregate; 
simple, when no part of the fructification is common to many 
flowers or florets, but is confined to one only ; aggregate, 
when the flower consists of many florets collected into a head 
by means of some part of the fructification common to them 
all, as by a common receptacle, or common calyx; as in 
dipsacus , scabiosa, &c. 
From the different structure, disposition, and other circum¬ 
stances of the receptacle or calyx, being the only common 
part to aggregate flowers, arise seven divisions. 
1st. Aggregate, properly so called, consisting of such 
flowers as are formed by the union of several lesser flowers pr 
florets, placed on partial peduncles,% on a common dilated 
* This term is defined to be the mode by which flowers are joined to their 
several peduncles, whether common or partial. 
f A flower in the Sexual Botany hath a very different signification from the 
same term of former writers ; for if the antherse and stigma be present; though 
the calyx, corolla, filaments of the stamina, and style of the pistillumbe wanting; 
it is still a flower; and if all the parts are present, it is a complete flower. The seed 
also constitutes the fruit, whether there be a pericarpium or not.—The different 
colours and odours of plants and flowers are supposed to proceed, by a chemical 
process of nature, from the different qualities of the juices of plants combined with 
their essential oils. In many plants the colour of the flower corresponds with the 
juices of the root, as in eelandine, larbary, &c. and in these plants the colour is 
more fixed, and apt for dying. 
+ A peduncle is the footstalk of a flower only, issuing from the branches: the 
footstalk of a leaf is called petiole : peduncles are called fastigiate, when there are 
several, and their lengths so proportioned, that the flowers form a regular surface. 
The whole flower of the aggregate sort is called Jlos universalis, and the partial 
florets are called Jlores proprii ; and each floret, in some genera, is a complete 
fructification of itself, having calyx, corolla, &c. 
