5
at first appear ; of the three accounts that by the Italian authors accords best with the natur a
conditions as seen in India. In any case it is certain, (1) that we have to deal with a contin-
uous succession of definitions of the axis ; (2) that of the two lateral branches associated
with each such definition only one continues the process ; also (3) that, except at the com-
mencement and at the close, the definition and the concomitant branching do not occur in
the same plane or at the same node. It is this last circumstance that is the confusing factor,
and that has been the cause of whatever dubiety has existed.
Female Inflorescence. —The female inflorescence is subtended like the male
by a leaf with two free basal stipules (PLATE 2, fig. 1). The axil of each stipule
here, however, in place of containing a complex cymose inflorescence, contains a
single exstipulate boat-shaped involving flower-bract ; within each bract lies a
solitary female flower (PLATE 2, figs. 4-9). The inner margins of the bracts over-
lap the outer (PLATE 2, figs. 5, 6) and the free margins look towards each other. A
single nerve enters the base of each bract, but almost at once gives off two
branches, rather stronger than the central continuation of the nerve (PLATE 2, fig.
8 ; PLATE 4, fig. 6) ; these in turn each emit a sub-horizontal zig-zag branch from
which are given off 3 or 4 nerves more or less parallel to the primary nerves. In
the axil of the stipulate leaf and between the two basal flowers, is situated an
apparently indefinite spiral spicate series of pairs of female flowers quite like the
basal pair, though not infrequently, especially near the ends of these branchlets,
the leaf (or bract) with its stipules is abortive, and instead of a pair of flowers only
one involving bract with its contained flower occurs ; occasionally too, at the very
tip, the flower may be present without any involving bract. Under ordinary circum-
stances these pseudo-spikes contain from 4-7 such pairs of female flowers, but
often towards the apex of the stem and of its main-branches only the basal pairs
of female flowers are to be found, the small spikelets being suppressed ; on the
other hand, towards the base of the stem, the spikelets are often replaced by
leafy branchlets. The arrangement of the systems is shown schematically in
PLATE 2, figs. 2, 3 ; the arrangement of a single basal pair is shown in PLATE 2,
fig. 6.
The nature of the female inflorescence has been studied by Wylder, 1 by B. Clarke, 2 by
Eichler3and by Briosi and Tognini.4The two former do not give very clear accounts,
the two latter do.
The involving bract, the perianth of many of the older botanists, varies considerably in
shape. In uncultivated Indian plants and in cultivated European ones it is usually acute or
even acuminate ; in cultivated Indian plants it is generally truncate at the apex (PLATE 2,
figs. 4, 5 ; 7, 8 ; 14). Nees,5 and in this he is followed by Reichenbach,6shows it as
1 Flora (1844), p. 739, t. 3, f. 2 ; Flora (1851), p. 434 ; and Flora (1865), p. 318.
2 Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 2, xi. (1853), p. 459.
3 Bluthen-diagramme, ii. 60.
4 Intorno all' anatomia della Canapa, i. 93.
5 Gen. Plant. Flor. Germ. Monochlam : Berlin, 1835 ; t. 30.
6 Ic. Flor. Germ. : Leipzig, 1850 ; t. 655