1 66 Flowers and their Pedizrees. 



Finally we come to the most important part of all, 

 the ovar)^ This part, alternating with the stamens, 

 has the same arrangement of styles relatively to the 

 axis as in the case of the petals ; and it has under- 

 gone precisely the same sort of abortive distortion. 

 The two outer stj-les, hanging freely out of the calyx, 

 have been preserved like the two outer lodiculcs ; but 

 the inner one, pressed between the grain and the 

 inner pale (with the stem behind it) has been simply 

 crushed out of existence, like its neighbour the inner 

 lodicule. 



Thus the final result is that the whole inner por- 

 tion of the flower (except as regards stamens) has 

 been distorted or rendered abortive by close pressure 

 against the stem (due to the crowding of the florets 

 in the spiky form), while the whole outer portion 

 remains normal and fully developed. We have 

 an outer pale representing a single normal sepal, 

 and an inner pale representing two dwarfed and 

 united sepals ; we have two normal outer lodicules 

 or petals, and a blank where the inner petal ought to 

 be ; we have three stamens, symmetrically arranged, 

 among the faithless faithful only found ; and we 

 have finally two normal outer styles, with a 

 blank in place of the absent inner st\-le. The 

 accompanying diagram, compared with that of the 



