Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/267

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OF THE INFLORESCENCE.
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3, 4, 5 or numerous rays, each of which is repeatedly subdivided, either in a threefold or forked manner. See Engl. Bot. t. 883, 959. &c.

Cyma, a Cyme, has the general appearance of an umbel, and agrees with it so far that its common stalks all spring from one centre, but differs in having those stalks variously and alternately subdivided. Examples are found in Viburnum, Engl. Bot. t. 331, 332, and the common Laurustinus, as also in Sambucus, Elder, t. 475, 476. This mode of inflorescence agrees with a corymbus also in general aspect, but in the latter the primary stalks have no common centre, though the partial ones may sometimes be umbellate, which last case is precisely the reverse of a cyma.

Panicula, a Panicle, bears the flowers in a sort of loose subdivided bunch or cluster, without any order. When the stalks are distant, it is called diffuse, a lax or spreading panicle, as in Saxifraga umbrosa, t. 663, so frequent in gardens under the name of London Pride, and