110 



OVULES. 



[SECTION 11 



Section XL OVULES. 



317. Ovule (from the Latin, meaning a little egg) is the technical name 

 of that which in the flower auswers to and becomes the seed. 



318. Ovules are naked in gymnospermous plants (as just described) ; in 

 all others they are enclosed in the ovary. They may be produced along the 



whole length of the cell or cells of the ovary, and then they are 

 apt to be numerous ; or only from some part of it, generally 

 the top or the bottom. In this case they are usually few or 

 single (solitary, as in Fig. 341-343). They may be sessile, 

 i. e. without stalk, or they may be attached by a distinct stalk, 

 340 the Funicle or Funiculus (Fig. 340). 



319. Considered as to their position aud direction in the ovary, they are 

 Horizontal, when they are neither turned upward nor downward, as in 



Podophyllum (Fig. 326) ; 



Ascending, when rising obliquely upwards, usually from the side of the 

 cell, not from its very base, as in the But- 

 tercup (Fig. 341), and the Purslane (Fig. 

 272); 



Erect, when rising upright from the 

 very base of the cell, as in the Buck- 

 wheat (Fig. 342) ; 



Pendulous, when hanging from the 

 side or from near the top, as in the Flax (Fig. 270) ; and 



Suspended, when hanging perpendicularly from the very summit of the 

 cell, as in the Anemone (Fig. 343). All these terms equally apply to 

 seeds. 



320. In structure an ovule is a pulpy mass of tissue, usually with one 

 or two coats or coverings. The following parts are to be noted ; viz : 



Kernel or Nucleus, the body of the ovule. In the Mistletoe and some 

 related plants, there is only this nucleus, the coats being wanting. 



Teguments, or coats, sometimes only one, more commonly two. When 

 two, one has been called Primine, the other Secundine. It will serve all 

 purposes to call them simply outer and inner ovule-coats. 



Orifice, or Foramen, an opening through the coats at the organic apex 

 of the ovule. In the seed it is Micropyle. 



Chalaza, the place where the coats and the kernel of the ovule blend. 



Hilum, the place of junction of the funiculus with the body of the ovule. 



Fig. 340. A cluster of ovules, pendulous on their funicles. 



Fig. 341. Section of the ovary of a Buttercup, lengthwise, showing its ascending 

 ovule. 

 Fig. 342. Section of the ovary of Buckwheat, showing the erect ovule. 

 Fig. 343. Section of the ovary of Anemone, showing its suspended ovule- 



