Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/264

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OF THE INFLORESCENCE.

in which the corymbus of flowers becomes a racemus of fruit, as happens also in that section of the Veronicæ, entitled by Linnæus corymboso-racemosæ. The flowers of Yarrow, Achillea, t. 757 and 758, and several others of the compound class, as well as the Mountain Ash, t. 337 grow in a corymbose manner, though their inflorescence may not come exactly under the above definition. It is worthy of remark that Linnæus in that definition uses the word spica, not racemus, nor has he corrected it in his own copy of Phil. Bot. p. 41, though he has properly altered a slip of the pen in the same line, petiolis, to pedunculis[1]. This shows he did not restrain his idea of a spike absolutely to sessile flowers, but admitted that extended signification which nature justifies. Many plants acquire partial stalks as the fruit advances towards maturity.

  1. It might be expected from the numerous learned editors and copiers of this and other works of Linnæus, that they should correct such manifest errors as the above which any tyro might perceive.