THE FLOWER. 



enumerated and defined already (302, note) : the elementary 

 term is that of 



478. Carpel, Lat. C'AKPI.I.I.IM. This is the term coined by Dunal, 

 and is in common use. The better-formed word CAKI'IIUTM 

 (English ('(ir/nd) lias been proposed, and best of all CAKPO- 

 I'liYi.i.r.M, in Fnglish Carpopliyll. For carpels are. as the word 

 carpophylla denotes, pistil-leaves, or leaves of the gymrcium, 

 /. i'., seed-bearing or fruetiferous phylla. The}- occupy the cen- 

 tral or uppermost region of the flower. A carpel may IK- a pistil 

 of itself, either the only one of a blossom or one of several, or 

 it may be a constituent of a more complex pistil. In either case, 

 a carpel is the homologuc of a leaf. 



17'.). The morphological conception of an uncombined carpel 

 is that of the bhule of a leal' incurved lengthwise, so that 

 the margins meet, and join by a suture, thus forming a closed 

 sac, the ovary. A prolongation of the tip of the leaf is the sti/fr : 

 some portion of this, usually the apex, not rarely a single or 

 double line down the side which answers to the suture of the 

 leal-margins, and may be regarded as its continuation, is the 

 stigma. The carpellary leaf is alwaj-s incurved : the lower sur- 

 face of the leaf is represented by 

 the exterior surface of the ovary, 

 the upper by the interior. The 

 conjoined margins of the leaf, or 

 whatever they bear, are internal 

 in the ovary: the stigma may lie 

 regarded as a portion of leaf- 

 margins presented externally, des- 

 titute of epidermis and formed 

 of loose cellular tissue, which in 

 anthesis is moist by some secretion. The ovules are peculiar 

 structures normally arising as outgrowths from the margins of 

 the leal', or some part of them, sometimes from the whole or 

 a special portion of the upper or inner surface of the leaf. 



LSI). The carpellary leaf being involute, the suture, on which 

 the ovules are normally borne, always looks toward the axis or 

 <-eiitre of the Mower. It is the only proper suture (or seam) a 

 carpel can have. From its position it lakes the- name of Inner 

 or }'<'ntr<il Suliin-. And the opposite line or ridge, answering 

 to the midrib of the leaf, being sometimes prominent and of the 



KIO. r.i'T. A learineiirvinu'. I" illustrate tin- morphology "fa sit" pie pistil or c;iri.i-l. 



\ r:n pel (of Isopyrmn Mternat inn ). cut aeross, the lateral stisma (here manifestly 



a .lonl.1i- line) and tin- snt mv Lnn-iu^' tlir ovules tnriinl to\v:inl tlie eye. 529. A ripo 



r:irpel of .M.-irsli M:m<_'oM \\liirl. h:is oprnrd un.lslied the seeds: the points of attacL- 



i in ni of the latter conspicuous along the edges of the carpel. 



