ANGIOSPERMS. 



347 



terminates in a flower, the plant being therefore uniaxial ; when this is the case a 

 sympodial (cymose) inflorescence is usually developed by the formation of new shoots 

 with terminal flowers beneath the first flower. Usually the shoots of the second, 

 third or some higher order are the first to end in a flower, so that the plant may in 

 this respect be described as having two, three or more axes. 



In Gymnosperms the flowers are as a rule unisexual (diclinous), but hermaphro- 

 ditism decidedly predominates in Angiosperms, though monoecious and dioecious 

 species, genera and families are not altogether uncommon. The male flowers some- 

 times differ essentially in structure from the female, as in the Cupuliferae and Canna- 

 bineae ; but more often the diclinism is owing to partial or complete abortion of the 

 androecium in some flowers and of the gynaeceum in others, the flowers being in other 

 respects constructed after the same type (Fig, 267 A); in such cases hermaphrodite 

 flowers may also be found on the same plant with the male and female flowers, as in 

 Fraximis excelsior, Saponaria ocymoides, Acer, and others, which are therefore said to 

 ht polygamous. But even in hermaphrodite flowers with male and female sporophylls. 



FlC. 267. Akebia quinatci. A a part of the inflorescence ; ? female, ^ male flowers. B longitudinal section of male 

 flower ; c its sterile carpel. C transverse section of a female flower magnified. D transverse section of a male flower. 

 E the gynaeceum of the female flower with the small stamens a. F an ovary in transverse section. G an ovule. // trans- 

 verse section of an anther, a outer, a' inner stamens, c carpel, / perianth. 



Structurally and functionally perfect, fertilisation is eff"ected by the conveyance of the 

 pollen of one flower to the gynaeceum of another flower or even of the flower of 

 another plant of the same species, either because pollination within the same flower 

 is rendered impossible by its organisation, as in dichogamous flowers, or because the 

 pollen is eff'ective only when applied to the ovule of a different flower, as in the 

 Orchideae, Corydalis, etc. 



The floral axis in the Gymnosperms is usually so elongated, that llie sporophylls, 



