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Spikelets ovoid or oblong, of several loosely imbricated scales; the lower empty, one or two above bearing a staminate or imperfect flower; the terminal flower perfect and fertile.

Spikelets 2–6-flowered, with a terminal imperfect flower or naked rudiment, closely imbricate-spiked on one side of a flattish rhachis; the spikes digitate.

Some flowers seem imperfect without any cause save the fancy of the one who is regarding them; thus to me the Balsam is an imperfect flower.

Rose. s, Sepals transformed into leaves. p, Petals multiplied at the expense of the stamens, which are reduced in number. c, Coloured leaves representing abortive carpels. a, Axis prolonged, bearing an imperfect flower at its apex.

The first condition is the opposite of suppression; it is, as it were, a restoration of symmetry, and might be included under the head of regular peloria, inasmuch as certain organs which habitually undergo suppression at a certain stage in their development, by exception, go on growing, and produce a perfect, instead of an imperfect flower.