CHAPTER X. 



THE RECEPTACULAR TUBE. 



The Calyx or Recefi'acular Tube. — This organ consists of 

 a cellular sheath of varying degrees of thickness, free from 

 or adherent to the ovary. Much discussion has arisen as to 

 the true nature of it, whether it should be regarded as axial 

 or foliar. The older view generally maintained was that it 

 consisted of the lower part of the outermost whorl of the 

 perianth or calyx — in other words, that the basal or petiolar 

 portions of the sepaline leaves were coherent ; and if the 

 ovary were inferior, then they were supposed to be adherent 

 to the latter as well. 



Schleiden appears to have been the first botanist who 

 propounded the view that it was axial and not foliar. He 

 was followed by others ; but this idea took two forms. 

 According to one, it was thought that everything below the 

 summit of the inferior ovary — that is to say, the outer wall, 

 the septa and placentas — was axial, and only the free portion 

 of the summit of the ovary, together with the styles and 

 stigmas, were foliar. According to the other view, it was 

 maintained that the ovaries, styles, and stigmas were foliar, 

 and the superficial covering to the ovary alone was axial. 

 The first view was held by Schleiden, A. de Saint Hilaire, 

 Trecul, Payer, Prantl, and Sachs ; * the latter by Decaisne, 



* E.g. Sachs' Text-Book of Botany, Eng. (2nd) ed., p. 566. 



