148 GYNCECIUM. [CH. XI 



like the members of the androecium, are arranged spirally 

 on the axis of the flower. Each carpel may be considered 

 a leaf folded so as to include a cavity. The hollow of the 

 carpel is known as the ovary and contains an ovule. The 

 ovule is simply a young seed; for our present purpose 

 the only point of importance about the ovule is that in 

 it is developed the egg-cell which afterwards gives origin 

 to the embryo. In fig. 63 B one of the carpels is laid open 

 so as to show the ovule within. At the hook-like upper 

 end of the carpel is an organ called the stigma, whose 

 function is to receive the pollen-grains and transmit, in a 

 way to be described, the fertilising element to the egg-cell. 

 The ovary and stigma 1 are the essential parts of the carpel, 

 but usually there is a distinct stalk, the style, on which the 

 stigma is borne ; it is absent in the buttercup, but in the 

 cowslip (fig. 65) the style runs up the centre of the flower 

 as a delicate column, bearing a rounded stigma at its free 

 extremity. 



Bean-flower. 



The structure of the bean-flower will be understood 

 from the sketches of the very similar flower of the Sweet 

 Pea (fig. 67). The flower stands with its axis more or less 

 horizontal instead of approximately vertical as is the axis 

 of the buttercup flower. It differs from the last named 

 in the matter of symmetry ; it is not uniformly symmetrical 

 round its axis ; this is clear when it is noted that the big 

 petal marked S in fig. 67 has no counterpart on the opposite 



1 The term pistil is used to express the ovary, style, and stigrna 

 collectively. 



