AGGREGATE, in botany, is a term used to express those flowers which are composed of parts or florets, so united or incorporatedby means either ofthe recep. tacle or calyx, that no one of them can be taken away without destroying the form of the whole. They are opposed to sim ple flowers that have no such common part, which is either the receptacle or the calyx, and are usually divided into seven kinds, viz, the aggregate, properly so call ed, whose receptacle i s dilated, and whose florets are supported by foot-stalks; such are the blue daisy, thrift, orsea-pink, &c.: the compound, which consist of several florets, that are placed, without partial peduncles, on a common dilated recepta cle, and within a common perianthium ; and where each floret hath its proper ca. lyx ; it is also a perianthium: umbellate, when the flower consists of many florets placed on fastigate peduncles, proceeding from the same stem or receptacle ; and which, though ofdifferent lengths, rise to such a height as to form a regular head or umbel, flat,`) convex, or concave: cy mous, when several fastigate peduncles proceed from the same centre, like the umbel, and rise to nearly an even height; but, unlike the umbel, the secondary or partial peduncles proceed without any regular order, is in sambucus, viburnum, &c.: amentaceous, which have a long
common receptacle; along these are dis posed squamx or scales, which form that sort of calyx called the Amentum: glu mose, which proceed from a common husky calyx belonging to grasses, called Gluma, many of which flowers are placed on a common receptacle, called Rad:is, collecting the florets into the spikes, as triticmn, hordeum, bolium, &c.: and spa diceous, which have a common recepta cle, protruded from within a common ca lyx, called Spatlia, along which are dis posed several florets. Such a receptacle is called a Spadix, and is either branched, as in phoenix; or simple, as in narcissus, &c. In this last case, the florets may be disposed all around it, as in calla, draco nitum, &e. ; on the lower part of it, as in arum, &c.; or on one side, as in zostera, &c. These flowers have generally no partial calyx.