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In other families each flower of such an inflorescence would be subtended by a bract, according to the general rule that in the higher plants side branches are situated in the arils of leaves. Bracts are reduced leaves, but the spikes of the cruciferous plants are generally devoid of them. The flower-stalks, with naked bases, seem to arise from the common axis at indefinite points.
Now and then a tall, green stalk of the columbine could be seen, and occasionally a wooly circle of bracts on the stem of a late anemone. At intervals tall ferns bent over the woodland pathway, as if to hide and protect it for the private use of the many tiny wild feet that scampered over it daily. "Isn't this great," cried Ham. "Just take a peek at that grove of trees.
Coming now to particular instances, we may turn our attention in the first place to the genus Sisymbrium. Two species are reputed to have bracts, Sisymbrium hirsutum and S. supinum. Each flower-stalk of their long racemes is situated in the aril of such a bract, and the peculiarity is quite a natural one, corresponding exactly to what is seen in the inflorescence of other families.
I take a walk of five or six miles up to a pine-grove park, its grassy carpet bedecked with crimson velvet flowers, set in groups on the stems of pear-shaped cactus plants; patches of painted cups are seen here and there, with yellow blossoms protruding through scarlet bracts; little blue-eyed flowers are peeping through the grass; and the air is filled with fragrance from the white blossoms of the Spiraea.
Bracts in the inflorescence of crucifers are ordinarily wanting, but may be seen in some genera, Erucastrum pollichii being perhaps the most widely known instance, although other cases might easily be cited. For our special purpose we may take up only the more simple cases that may be available for experimental work.
In connection with these characters, the flower-buds are seen to be much stouter than those of lamarckiana. The fruits attain only half the normal size, but are broader and contain fewer, but larger seeds. The rubrinervis is in many respects a counterpart to the gigasv, but its stature is more slender. The spikes and flowers are those of the lamarckianav, but the bracts are narrower.
There remain the stout woolly flower-stems an inch or more long and bearing minute dry bracts, with the young fruit at the summit topped by the five recurving woolly sepals and the pencil of stamens and styles. The bloom being gone, the flowering system of the apple is thenceforth little observed.
Ludwig discovered that these secondary summits comply with the rule discovered by Braun and Schimper, stating the relation of the subsequent figures of the series. This series gives the terms of the disposition of leaves in general, and of the bracts and flowers on the composite flower heads in our particular case.
I am told that an ounce contains more than 340,000, and would rather believe than be forced to prove it. Annual marjoram is much more erect, more bush-like, has smaller, narrower leaves, whiter flowers, green bracts and larger, but lighter seeds only 113,000 to the ounce and only 20 ounces to the quart! Cultivation.
When very young it has broader leaves, but in the adult rosettes the leaves become very narrow, but fleshy and of a bright green color. They are so crowded as to leave no space between them unoccupied. The flowering spikes of the second year bear long leaf-like bracts under the first few flowers, but those arising later are much shorter.
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