WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 



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lobes or divisions of the stigma bear a direct relationship to the number 

 of petals, sepals and stamens. The term carpel (or carpophyllum) is used 

 to designate the seed-bearing leaf. A carpel may be a pistil of itself, or it 

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

 is the homologvie of a leaf. The surface within the ovary to which the 

 ovules are attached is called the placenta. 



Simple pistils may be solitary, or several together on a common recep- 

 tacle within the flower, as in the Buttercup. A compound pistil consists 

 of two, three or more carpels united into one body. 



The apex of the flowering stem, which supports the flower, is 

 designated as the receptacle. 



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49 



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Arrangement of flowers. • 



Flowers are either solitary or clustered, but their arrangement varies 

 in different kinds of plants, and may even vary to some extent in the same 

 species. The arrangement or disposition of the flowers may be designated 

 as the inflorescence. The following are the most frequent arrangements 

 of flowers: 



Spike (figure 48), in which the flowers are arranged along the flowering 



