FORMS OF THE RECEPTACLE. 



211 



405 



are often more complicated in structure. They are always on 

 the inner face, and are commonly two-lobed or parted. 



386. Similar staniineal appendages are well known in Cuscuta 

 (Dodder), in Larrea (Fig. 405) and other Zygophyl- 



lacese, and less conspicuously in Gaura. 



387. To extend to them the name of LIGULE may 

 not be amiss, whether they are regarded as mere 

 outgrowths of floral leaves, without further morpho- 

 logical relations, or whether they be, at least some- 

 times, interpreted as the homologue of intrapetiolar 

 stipules, as their ordinarily two-cleft form, and their 

 coincidence in Erythroxylum with an intrapetiolar two-cleft stipule 

 suggest. 



9. FORMS OF THE TORUS OR RECEPTACLE. 



388. Torus is the more specific and proper name, RECEPTACLE 

 is the more usual. (303.) A normal receptacle of the flower 

 would be that of Fig. 316, the apex of the flower-stalk somewhat 

 enlarged, roundish or depressed, and with surface mainly cov- 

 ered by the insertion of the several organs ; the several inter- 

 nodes which it potentially contains being 

 undeveloped. As the members of the flower 



multiply and occupy numerous ranks, the 

 receptacle enlarges or lengthens to give them 

 insertion or standing-room. 



389. Of elongated forms of receptacle, 

 Magnolia and Liriodendron or Tulip-tree give 

 familiar instances. The lengthening in the 

 former is mainly for the support of both an- 

 droecium and gynoecium ; in the latter, as in 

 M3'osurus, mainly for the gynoeciuni only. 

 The fall of the matured carpels reveals it 

 as a very slender or bodkin-shaped pro- 

 longed axis. Of broadened forms, the Straw- 

 berry, even in blossom, affords a familiar 

 example. (Fig. 406.) In the same order, 

 Rubus odoratus shows a very broad and flat 



receptacle: in roses, it is so deeply concave as to become the 

 reverse of the strawberry (Fig. 407), being urn-shaped with a 

 narrow mouth, upon which the petals and stamens are borne, 



FIG. 405. Stamen of Larrea Mexicana, with a conspicuous ligulate appendage at 

 the base within. 



FIG. 406. Receptacle of a strawberry in longitudinal section. 407. Same of a rose, 

 in diagram. 



