密錐花序之研究

Study on the Thyrse, a mixed inflorescence

An inflorescence is a cluster of flowers in which the branches and leaves have been more or less modified. Most Dicotyledons have either a determinate or an indeterminate inflorescence. But there is another type of inflorescence having an indeterminate arrangement of flower-branches on the main axis and a determinate arrangement of flowers on the branchlets or branches and thus they may be called a ''mixed inflorescence''. Some mixed inflorescences, whose appearance is paniculate, are designated ''thyrses'' or ''thyrsis''. The definition of a ''thyrse'' in Bailey’s Manual is a ''compact and more or less compound panicle; more correctly a paniclelike cluster with main axis indeterminate and other parts determinate''.