xe 
Journal of Proceedings. 
It sometimes happens in the King-cup that there is more than one 
sub-terminal flower, each on a simple pedicel. It is easy to imagine the 
number of such flowers increased indefinitely. This conception is 
realized in the genus Aconitum. The lower branches of the stem in 
Aconitum paniculatum retain their terminal flowers and have also flowers 
at their sides, thus forming a real panicle. The main axis of the stem 
is not, I think, so constant either in the possession of or in the want of a 
terminal flower. In the common Monkshood (Aconitum napellus), neither 
the main axis nor any branch of the flowering stem is terminated by a 
flower, but sometimes even A. napellus reveals its affinity with plants 
having definite inflorescence by a pair of minute bracts on the stalk 
which bears a flower. This phenomenon is not, however, constant, nor 
perhaps frequent, but may be observed sometimes. 
If we regard the King-cup ( Caltlia palustris) as representing the 
primary form of inflorescence from which other forms may have been 
evolved, it is interesting, in view of some recent speculations on the 
evolution of colour in flowers, to find the flowers of Caltlia yellow and 
without petals, those of Aconitum paniculatum variegated with blue and 
white, while those of the Monkshood (A. napellus) are in an indefinite 
raceme, and of the deepest blue. Ranunculus differs from Caltlia, and 
resembles Aquilegia in that the uppermost branch below the summit of 
the main axis is not a simple pedicel bearing a solitary flower, but a 
peduncle capable of branching and often actually giving origin to a lateral 
flower besides that upon its top ; so that we find flowers on the primary, 
secondary, and tertiary axes, as in those plants which have a truly 
centrifugal inflorescence. Indeed, if the two uppermost branches of 
Ranunculus acris (the tallest Buttercup, which gives a yellow brilliance 
to fields where grass is growing to be cut for hay) were opposite, the 
order of expansion among the flowers of this plant would be really centri¬ 
fugal, for the branches below these two are considerably behind them 
in the expansion of their flowers; but it sometimes happens that the 
uppermost branch but one expands its flower before that which is between 
it and the summit. This is the nearest approach to a centrifugal order 
of expansion without reaching it, or perhaps I should say without con¬ 
stantly maintaining it, that I know of. 
Thus we see a gradation from the diffuse but definite mode of inflores¬ 
cence observed in Caltlia palustris, through the panicle of Aconitum 
paniculatum, to the indefinite spike or raceme of Aconitum napellus. On 
the other hand we see Ranunculus acris and other species of Ranunculus 
bearing considerable resemblance to Caltlia, but with so much difference 
as to approach the centrifugal habit of Silene. 
In the same natural order as the plants that we have been considering 
is the Traveller’s-joy (Clematis vitalba ), whose flowers are disposed in a 
manner so regular that we might regard it as the typical form of 
inflorescence with which other forms might be compared. In this plant 
the flowers are in a panicle, sometimes with a flower at the end of the 
main axis, which is however not often produced till near the end of the 
summer, when the flowers on axillary peduncles have given place to 
clusters of achenes with feathery tails. The leaves of this plant being 
opposite, so are the peduncles in their axils. The bracts which these 
peduncles bear are opposite as well, and each of them has a flower-stalk 
in its axil. So each axillary peduncle is the basis of a panicle, the 
flowers of which are arranged on the same plan which prevails through¬ 
out the entire flowering system. It is often not upon the top of a panicle 
that the first flower expands, but on one of the lower branches; then the 
flowering proceeds upwards as concerns the branches, but the terminal 
flower will be open before that of the uppermost branch. Clematis vitalba 
differs from Caltlia palustris not only in its flowering branches being 
