THE FLOWER 285 
portion, the style. A leaf thus transformed into an ovule-bearing 
organ is called a carpel or pistil. The pistils of the Columbine 
and Pea are made up of single carpels. In the latter the young 
peas occupy a double row along one of the sutures (seams) of the 
pod. ‘This portion corresponds to the infolded edge of the leaf, 
and the pod splits open along this line, called the ventral suture. 
Dehiscence, or the natural opening of the carpel to let free the 
contained seeds, takes place also along the line which corresponds 
to the mid-rib of the leaf, the dorsal suture. 
The gynoecium may consist of a number of separate carpels, as 
in the buttercup or Water Lily flowers, when it is said to be apo- 
carpous, or the carpels composing it may be united together to 
form a single structure, as in the flowers of Belladonna and 
Orange, when it is called syncarpous. 
If the pistil is composed of one carpel, it is called mono- 
carpellary; if two carpels enter into its formation, it is said to be 
bicarpellary; if three, tricarpellary; if many, polycarpellary. 
Compound Pistils are composed of carpels which have united to 
form them, and therefore their ovaries will usually have just as 
many cells (Jocules) as carpels. When each simple ovary has its 
placenta, or seed-bearing tissue, at the inner angle, the resulting 
compound ovary has as many axile or central placentz as there 
are carpels, but all more or less consolidated into one. The 
partitions are called dissepiments and form parts of the walls of 
the ovary. If, however, the carpels are joined by their edges, like 
the petals of a gamopetalous corolla, there will be but one cell, 
and the placenta will be parietal, or on the wall of the compound 
ovary. 
Ovutes.—The Ovutes or MEGAsori are transformed buds, 
destined to become seeds in the mature fruit. Their number 
varies from one to hundreds. In position, they are erect, growing 
upward from the base of the ovary, as in the Composite; 
ascending, turning upward from the side of the ovary or cell; 
pendulous, like the last except that they turn downward; horizontal, 
when directed straight outward; suspended, hanging perpen- 
dicularly from the top of the ovary. 
In Gymnosperms the ovules are naked; in Angiosperms they 
are enclosed in a seed vessel. 
