390 WIGHT ON THE FRUIT oF THE CUCURBITACE^. 



surface of which is turned inward, the bwer outward ; and 

 the margins of which develop one or a greater number of 

 buds, which are the ovules. 



355. When the carpels are stalked, they are said to be 

 seated upon a thecaphore, or gynophorei Ex. Cleome, Passi- 

 flora. Their stalk is analogous to the petiole of a leaf. 



355. a. When the carpels are all distinct, or are separa- 

 ble with facility, they are apocarpous; when they all grow 

 into a solid body, which cannot be separated into its consti- 

 tuent parts, they are syncarpous. 



356. The ovary is the lamina of the leaf. 



357. The style is an elongation of the midrib (n't.) 



358. The stigma is the denuded, secreting, humid apex of 

 the midrib. 



359. W^here the margins of the folded leaf, out of which 

 the carpel is formed, meet and unite, a copious development 

 of cellular tissue takes place, forming what is called the pla- 

 centa. 



360. Every placenta is therefore composed of two parts, 

 one of which belongs to one margin of the carpel, and one to 

 the other. 



361. As the carpels are modified leaves, they necessarily 

 obey the laws of arrangement of leaves, and are therefore de- 

 veloped round a common axis. 



362. And as they are leaves folded inward, their margins 

 are necessarily turned towards the axis. The placenta, there- 

 fore, being formed by the union of those margins, will be in- 

 variably next the axis." 



From this we learn, in few words, that the carpellary leaf 

 is always so folded that its midrib is towards the circumfer- 

 ence, or forms the dorsum of the cell or carpel, while the pla- 

 centiferous margins are placed in the axis; that the difference 

 between a one-celled and many-celled fruit, merely consists 

 in the placentiferous margins of the carpellary leaves of the 

 former not extending inward to the axis, but stopping in the 

 circumference and bearing their ovules attached to the walls 

 ot the cell— hence parietal. This position of the carpellary 



