CHAPTER XXIII 



THE ANGIOSPERMAE : FLOWERS 



Although in its widest application the term " Flowering Plant" correctly 

 includes the Gymnosperms as well as the Angiosperms, yet it is nearly 

 always the latter group which we have in mind when the term is used. The 

 interpretation of the reproductive strobili of some Gymnosperms is open to 

 question, but in the great majority of x^ngiosperms it is clear what we should 

 regard as the " flower " and it is these angiospermic flowers and their organs 

 that we are about to consider. So vast is the range of pattern among the 

 angiospermic flowers, so infinitely varied are their forms, that it would be 

 impossible even in a complete volume to give any full, systematic account of 

 them and we can only touch here on some of their fundamental features 

 and the general nature of their plan. 



Fig. 1042. — Karl Eberhard, Ritter von 

 Goebel, a great leader in plant mor- 

 phology and author of the" Organo- 

 graphie der Pflanzen ". 



INFLORESCENCES 



It has been claimed that the earliest type of flower is foreshadowed by 

 the bisporangiate strobili of some of the extinct Cycadophyta, which were 

 solitary and terminal on an axis. Without necessarily upholding the idea 

 of the direct descent of the Angiosperms from such types, we may accept 



B 1071 



