520 



BOTANY OF THE LIVING PLANT 



leafy shoot of the preceding year grows up into the inflorescence of the current 

 year, while it is upon a lateral bud from it that the foliage leaves are borne. 

 The inflorescence is cyrnose. Potentilla comarum will serve as an alternative 

 example (Fig. 426, B). The flower consists of : 



Calyx, sepals 5, polysepalous, seated at the margin of the widened receptacle. 

 Between the sepals are five additional green lobes, forming what is called an 



;Ef,'C. 



-/>*. 



c. 



c 



A, diagram of Apple. 



C, diagram of Cherry. 



B 



FIG. 426. 



(After Eichler.) B, diagram of Potentilla comarum. 

 (After Eichler.) 



epicalyx, believed to represent the fused pairs of stipules of the sepals, the 

 vegetative leaves being stipulate. (The number of sepals in cultivated straw- 

 berries may be more than five.) 



Corolla, petals 5, polypetalous, alternating with the sepals. 



Androecium, stamens indefinite, free, perigynous. They are arranged 

 with some regularity in whorls ; the outermost is of 10, representing five 

 stamens which have undergone fission. 



\ 



FIG. 427. 



Succulent receptacle of Strawberry. 

 (After Figuier.) 



FIG. 428. 



Vertical section of flower of the Peach, as an example 

 of a perigynous flower. (After Figuier.) 



Gynoecium, carpels indefinite, apocarpous superior, seated on the spherical 

 receptacle. Style springing from the side of each ovary, which contains 

 only one ovule. 



Fruit. A number of dry nuts seated on the receptacle, which has become 

 distended and succulent, while the calyx is persistent as the " hull " (Fig. 427). 



