INFLORESCENCE AND FLOWERS FRUIT AND SEED 



' cup ' in which the ' acorn ' is inserted (fig. 34, m). If 

 the young female flower is carefully bisected longitudi- 

 nally this cupule will be seen to consist of a ring of 

 tissue, arising from beneath the ovary, and with its 

 margin notched into scales. As the ovule enlarges 

 the minute scales become more numerous, new ones 

 arising at the inner margin of the up-growing cupule. 



A transverse section 

 across the female flower 

 at a slightly later period 

 shows that the inferior 

 ovary is divided into 

 three chambers (loculi), 

 each corresponding to 

 one of the lobes of the 

 stigma, and each con- 

 taining two ovules (fig. 

 34). These ovules are 

 inserted at the upper 

 part of the inner angle 

 of the chamber, and 

 thus hang down in 



pairs. A curious point arises here. It seems that at 

 the period when the female flower has just opened, 

 but has not yet received any pollen on its stigma, 

 neither the ovules nor the chambers are as yet formed, 

 and the segments of the perigone spring from the lower 

 portion of the flower, and this condition is not altered 

 until pollination occurs ; then the tissue below the 



FlG. S3. A group of female flowers 

 (slightly magnified). Each has a 

 spreading stigma above and the 

 commencing cupule below, and 

 arises from the axil of a pointed 

 bract. (Th. Hartig.) 



