260 



THE FLOWER. 



enumerated and defined already (302, note) : the elementary 

 term is that of 



478. Carpel, Lat. CARPELLUM. This is the term coined by Dunal, 

 and is in common use. The better-formed word CARPIDIUM 

 (English Carpid) has been proposed, and best of all CARPO- 

 PHYLLUM, in English Carpophyll. For carpels are, as the word 

 carpophylla denotes, pistil-leaves, or leaves of the gynoacium, 

 i. e., seed-bearing or fructiferous phylla. They occupy the cen- 

 tral or uppermost region of the flower. A carpel may be a pistil 

 of itself, either the only one of a blossom or one of several, or 

 it may be a constituent of a more complex pistil. In either case, 

 a carpel is the homologue of a leaf. 



479. The morphological conception of an uncombined carpel 

 is that of the blade of a leaf incurved lengthwise, so that 

 the margins meet, and join by a suture, thus forming a closed 

 sac, the ovary. A prolongation of the tip of the leaf is the style : 

 some portion of this, usually the apex, not rarely a single or 

 double line down the side which answers to the suture of the 

 leaf-margins, and may be regarded as its continuation, is the 

 stigma. The carpellary leaf is always incurved : the lower sur- 

 face of the leaf is represented by 

 the exterior surface of the ovary, 

 the upper by the interior. The 

 conjoined margins of the leaf, or 

 whatever they bear, are internal 

 in the ovary : the stigma may be 

 regarded as a portion of leaf- 

 margins presented externally, des- 

 titute of epidermis and formed 

 of loose cellular tissue, which in 



anthesis is moist by some secretion. The ovules are peculiar 

 structures normally arising as outgrowths from the margins of 

 the leaf, or some part of them, sometimes from the whole or 

 a special portion of the upper or inner surface of the leaf. 



480. The carpellary leaf being involute, the suture, on which 

 the ovules are normally borne, always looks toward the axis or 

 centre of the flower. It is the only proper suture (or seam) a 

 carpel caff have. From its position it takes the name of Inner 

 or Ventral Suture. And the opposite line or ridge, answering 

 to the midrib of the leaf, being sometimes prominent and of the 



FIG. 527. A leaf incurving, to illustrate the morphology of a simple pistil or carpel. 

 528. A carpel (of Isopyrum biternatum), cut across, the lateral stigma (here manifestly 

 a double line )and the suture bearing the ovules turned toward the eye. 529. A ripe 

 carpel of Marsh Marigold which has opened and shed the seeds: the points of attach- 

 ment of the latter conspicuous along the edges of the carpel. 



