THE ANGIOSPERMAE 



113s 



and the base of the cup, which alone persists at maturity, being receptacular. 



(Fig.fiioy.) 



There are many perigynous and epigynous flowers in which it must 



remain a subject of research, or may indeed be altogether dubious, whether 

 the tissues surrounding the gynoecium are composed of 

 an axial upgrowth or of the fused bases of the floral 

 organs or of both combined, but there are numerous in- 

 stances where the origin of the enclosing cup by fusion 

 may be assumed to be correct. Many Saxifragaceae with 

 half-inferior or inferior ovaries appear to be in this class, 

 likewise some members of Rosaceae (Fig. iio8), where 

 the ovary is adherent to the side of a floral tube. The 

 condition in Dipsacaceae is likewise significant, for here 



Fig. 1 1 08. — Flower 

 oi Acioa (Rosa- 

 ceae) in longi- 

 tudinal section, 

 showing the 

 ovary adherent 

 atthe topof the 

 floral tube. 



{After Velenovsky.) 



A B t 



Fig. II 09. — Sections of a normal flower, A, and two 

 abnormal flowers, B and C, of Epilobiiiiu niontcuium, 

 showing descent of the floral parts from the epigy- 

 nous to the hypogynous position. (After Velenovsky.) 



the floral tube may only be adherent to the ovary at the top, so that we have 

 an epigynous flower with a free ovary. In Fuchsia and Oenothera the floral 

 tube which surmounts the inferior ovary plainly consists of the fused bases 

 of the sepals, petals and stamens. 



The allied genus Epilobinm also has a small floral tube of the same nature, 

 and in this genus Velenovsky has observed a very interesting series of abnor- 

 malities (Fig. 1 109), beginning with the disappearance of the floral tube, so 

 that the perianth became sessile on the top of the ovary, and ending with 

 the complete descent of the perianth and androecium to the base of the 

 gynoecium, so that a normally epigynous flower had been transformed mto 

 a hypogynous one. The most noteworthy point observed was that the 



D 



