CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 
' IJSTF L O FF S C F JSTC F. 
.IFFERENCES in the mode of flowering or in the general arrange¬ 
ment of the blossoms along the stem or branches, mark the various 
forms of inflorescence. When the flower that terminates the axis 
opens first, and the others in the order of their nearness to this one, the 
inflorescence is called determinate, definite , or centrifugal , as in the 
Hydrangea. When this order is reversed, and the first flower to bloom 
is* the one farthest from the terminal one, this being the very last, the inflo¬ 
rescence is said to he indeterminate, indefinite, ox centripetal , as in the Gladiolus. 
In a few genera the inflorescence partakes ot both peculiarities, and is called 
mixed , as in the Teasel, and also the Liatris, familiarly designated Blazing Star. 
Flowers, like buds, are known as terminal when they appear at the end of the 
stem, as in the Parnassia ( 8 ); whorled, when grouped around the stem in a circle, as 
in the Mint; and axillary , when at the axils, as in the Pentstemon (45)' 
The flowerstalk, when common to the whole cluster, is called a peduncle , the indi¬ 
vidual stalk of each separate flower being a pedicel , as in the Cardamine (47). When 
the peduncle bears a single flower, the inflorescence is called simple, as in the Morning 
Glory (56). When the peduncle with its flower springs directly from the root of the 
plant, the inflorescence is called a scape, as in the English Primrose (84); and when 
it has several flowers placed one above another and sessile (that is, without pedicels), it is 
called a spike, as in the Veronica spicata (85), or spadix, which is a fleshy variety of the 
spike, as in the Spiranthus; raceme, where each flower ot a cluster has its own pedicel 
arranged along a lengthened axis, as in the Canadian Milk-Vetch (86); panicle, 01 
branched cluster, where each pedicel (itself a branch of the peduncle) again branches, as 
in the Stellaria (87); corymb, where the lower flowers are on longer stalks, the inter¬ 
mediate on shorter, and the top ones nearly or quite sessile, as in the Mountain Ash (88); 
cyme, where the stalks are irregularly branched, but the flowers are nearly level at the 
top, as in the Dogwood (89); a fascicle is a cyme with the flowers crowded into a bundle, 
whence the name, as in the Sweet William; a glomerule is a dense, compact cyme resem¬ 
bling a head, as in the Cocklebur; umbel, where the flower-stalks spring, like so many 
umbrella ribs, from a common center, and rise to about the same height, each hearing 
its flower, as in the Milkweed (90); when, as sometimes happens, there is a smaller umbel 
on each pedicel, instead of a single flower, the inflorescence is called a compound umbel, 
as in the Carrot (91); when crowded in a dense mass and sessile, it is called a head, as 
in the Button-bush (92); a catkin, or ament, is a spike enclosed in a deciduous scale, as in 
the Hazel (93); a thyrsus is a compact panicle of pyramidal shape, as a bunch of grapes 
or the cluster of the Lilac. 
