NUMBER OF THE OVULES, 324 
it is said to be sessile (figs. 33, 0, 0, and 633, g) 3 or indirectly 
by a stalk called the funiculus or funicle (figs. 615, ov, and 
637), when it is described as stalked. The point of attachment 
of the ovule to the placenta if sessile, or to the funiculus when 
stalked, is termed the hilum. 'These terms are applied to the 
seed in the same sense as to the ovule. The ovule has been com- 
pared to a bud, and has been called the seed-bud by Schleiden 
and others. 
The ovules are commonly enclosed in an ovary (fig. 33, 0, ‘0), 
but all plants of the Conifers, Cycadacez, and allied orders 
are exceptions to this ; thus in the Cyca- 
dacez they are situated on the margins 
of leaves in a peculiarly metamorphosed 
condition, and in the Conifere at the 
base of indurated bracts or open carpel- 
lary leaves (fig. 730, ov). Such ovules 
are therefore termed naked, and as the 
seeds of these plants are also naked, such 
plants are called Gymnospermous ; while 
those plants in which the ovules are dis- 
tinctly enclosed in an ovary, are said to 
be Aigiospermous. It should be noticed, 
however, that there are some plants in 
which the seeds become partially naked 7%. 730. Bract or carpellary 
in the course of the development of the ae ea ee 
ovary into the fruit, as in the Mignonette ovules, ov, at its base. 
(fig. 665), Leontice, and Cuphea,inwhich 7 Mioropyle yor. Tora. 
cases they are sometimes termed semi- 
nude. True Gymnospermous plants, or those in which the 
ovules are naked from their earliest formation, should be care- 
fully distinguished from those with seminude ovules, as the 
former character is always associated with important structural 
peculiarities in the plants themselves, as we have already noticed 
in treating of the stem and other organs. Other important 
differences will also be described hereafter, and more especially 
in the Physiological part of this volume, under the head of 
Reproduction of Gymnospermia. 
NUMBER AND PosITION OF THE OvuLES.—a. Number.—The 
number of ovules in the ovary, or in each of its cells, varies 
in different plants. Thus in the Polygonacez, Composite, 
Thymelacez, and Dipsacacez, the ovary contains but a solitary 
ovule ; in the Umbellifere and Araliaceze, there is but one 
ovule in each cell. When there is more than one ovule in the 
ovary, or in each of its cells, the number may be either few 
and easily counted, when the ovules are said to be definite, 
as in 4sculus ( fig. 735),—and the ovary or cell is then described 
as biovulate, triovulate, quadriovulate, quinqueovulate, &e. ; or, 
the ovules may be very numerous, when they are said to be 
multiovulate or indefinite, as in the Pansy (fig. 33, ov). 
Fie. 730. 
