276 THE FLOWER. 



nally much alike in the two sexes, which throughout the family 

 occupy separate plants. The male flower (Fig. 568) or stamen, 

 if it may be so termed, bears indefinite pollen-sacs on the under 

 side of the peltate portion, sometimes extending to che upper 

 part of its stalk. The homologous female flower, or carpophyll, 

 bears a suspended ovule on each side of the stalk (Fig. 573), 

 which becomes a large fleshy-coated seed. In Cycas the male 

 ament is not very dissimilar, although on a larger scale. But 

 the carpophylls are evident leaves, not condensed into an ament, 

 but loose or spreading, of a character and aspect intermediate 

 between the lax bud-scales which precede and the pinnate foliage- 

 leaves which follow them in development. Along the margin 

 of what would be leaf-blade they bear ovules in place of leaflets, 

 lobes, or teeth (Fig. 576-578) ; and these, when fertilized from 

 the male flowers, mature into large and drupaceous naked seeds. 

 Even without fertilization, such seeds grow to their full size on 

 the female plant of the common Cycas (or falsely so-called Sago 

 Palm) , but form no embryo. 



SECTION Vni. THE OvuLE. 1 



515. Omles (302) are peculiar outgrowths or productions of 

 carpels which, upon the formation of an embryo within, become 

 seeds. In the angiospennous gynoecium (476) they are nor- 

 mally produced along the margins, or some part of the margins, 

 of the carpellary leaf (478) , either immediately, or by the in- 

 termediation of a placenta (485), which is a more or less evident 

 development of the leaf-margins for the support of the ovules. 

 Rarely, yet in a considerable number of cases (501, 502), ovules 

 are developed from the whole internal surface of the ovary, or 

 from various parts of it, in no definite order, directl}' from the 

 walls, and without the intervention of any thing which can be 

 regarded as placenta. In Gymnosperms (504-514) the ovules 

 are borne on the face of the carpellary scale or at its base ; or 

 on leaf-margins, as in Cycas ; or, when there is no representa- 

 tive of the carpel, on the cauline axis, seemingly as a direct 

 growth of it. (508, note.) 



516. As to attachment, ovules are either sessile, i. e. stalk- 

 less, or on a stalk of their own (Fig. 582, 584) , the FUNICULUS 

 or PODOSPERM. As to number they are either solitary, few, or 



1 Lat. Ovulum, pi. Ovula, diminutive of ovum (egg), perhaps first used by 

 Adanson 



