THE STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS 23 



"Inferior" fruits can generally be recognized 

 by having the withered sepals and stamens on the 

 top, as shown in Fig. 5 ; while the petals fall off. 

 This will be recalled in the case of the gooseberry 

 and currant, apples, pears, etc. 



Cucumbers and melons, and the scarlet berry 

 of the Bryony, however, are also inferior fruits ; 

 but with them the whole of the flower articulates, 

 leaving a clean scar on the top of the inferior ovary. 



We must now notice another modification in 

 flowers, and that is 

 the cohesion which may 

 take place between the 

 parts of the whorls. 

 In buttercups, every- 

 thing is free; but m Fig. 7. stamens of Pea ; nine coherent, 



the primrose, the five °°" ^'^'"• 



sepals are joined together ; so are the five petals 

 into a tube ; and the globular ovary consists of 

 five coherent carpels. 



In the Pea family the stamens are united by 

 their filaments making a complete tube in Laburnum 

 and Broom ; but with one of the ten stamens free 

 in most others of this family (Fig. 7), in order to 

 allow insects to get at the honey secreted within 

 the tube ; i. e. by the receptacle round the base of 

 the single carpel, the stigma of which protrudes. 



Carpels, if two or more in number, are generally 

 united. Thus there are two in Thorn-apple (Fig. 3 1) 



