ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION. 



281 



formed having no stalks. In rare cases, however, the ovary is 

 more or less elevated above the outer whorls, Avhen it is said to 

 be stalked or stipitate, as in the Passion-flower, Dictamnus (Jig. 

 609, g), and Dianthus (fig. 587, g) ; this stalk has received the 

 name of gynophore. We shall refer to it again under the head 

 of receptacle or thalamus. 



The ovary, whether simple or compound, as already noticed, 

 (see p. 226), may be either adherent to the calyx, or free from 

 it. In the former case, as in the Myrtle (fig. 448), it is inferior 

 or adherent, and the calyx is superior ; in the latter, as in the 

 Lychnis, Barberry (^.^.'^569), and Dictamnus (^^. 609j, it is 

 superior ox free, and the calyx is inferior. Sometimes tlie ovary is 

 but partially adherent to the calyx, as in the 

 Saxifrage (fig. 610), and other plants of the 

 order to which that belongs, in Avhich case it 

 is sometimes termed half-adherent or half- 

 inferior, the calyx being then half-superior ; 

 the latter terms are, however, but rarely used, 

 the ovary being commonly described as 

 inferior, whether its adhesion to the calyx be 

 complete or only partially so, and vice versa. 

 The young observer must be careful not to 

 confound the inferior ovary, as now described, 

 with the apparently inferior ovaries of such 

 flowers as the Rose (fig. 439), where the 

 receptacle is concave and attached to the 

 calyx, and bears a number of carpels on its 

 inner walls : a transverse section will at 

 once show the difference ; thus, in the Rose 

 we should find a single cavity open at its 

 summit, and covered with distinct carpels ; whereas, on the 

 contrary, a true adherent ovary would show one or more loculi 

 closed at the apex, and containing ovules. The ovaries of the 

 Rose are therefore strictly superior or free. 



Schleiden contends that the ovary is not always formed of 

 carpels, but sometimes also of the stem, and at other times of 

 the two combined. His views are not generally received by 

 botanists, and we need not therefore further allude to them. It 

 is probable however, that the thalamus by becoming hollowed 

 out may in some cases form part of the ovary, in the same man- 

 ner as it occasionally under similar circumstances forms a part 

 of the calyx, as already noticed in Eschscholtzia. 



The ovary varies in form and appearance ; when simple, it is 

 generally more or less in-egular, but when compound, it is com- 

 monly regular. Exceptions to the regularity of compound 

 ovaries may be seen in the Antirrhinum (fig. 611), and 

 in other instances. In form, the compound ovary is gene- 

 rally more or less spheroidal, or ovate. The outer surface may 



Fig. 610. Vertical sec- 

 tion of the flower of 

 a Saxifrage, showing 

 the ovary partially 

 adherent to the 

 calyx. 



