Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/263

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OF THE INFLORESCENCE.
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A compound spike is seen in Lavandula pinnata, Curt. Mag. t. 401, and L. abrotanoides of Willdenow.

Spica secunda, a spike whose flowers lean all to one side, occurs in Nardus stricta, Engl. Bot. t. 290.

Spicula, a Spikelet, is applied exclusively to grasses that have many florets in one calyx, such florets, ranged on a little stalk, constituting the spikelet, which is therefore a part of the flower itself, and not of the inflorescence; see Poa aquatica, t. 1315, fluitans, t. 1520, Briza minor, t. 1316, &c.


Corymbus, a Corymb, is a spike whose partial flower-stalks are gradually longer as they stand lower on the common stalk, so that all the flowers are nearly on a level, of which Spiræa opulifolia, a common shrub in gardens, is an excellent specimen. The Linnæan class Tetradynamia exemplifies this less perfectly, as Cardamine pratensis, Engl. Bot. t. 776, Cheiranthus sinuatus, t. 462, and the common Cabbage, Brassica oleracea, t. 637,