86 PART I. — ORGANOGRAPHY. 



ing. In the case of syncarpous pistils, the styles may be united 

 to any degree, from a slight union at the base to one which is 

 complete to the apex. In these cases the terms used in the 

 description of leaf-margins may be applied to them to indicate 

 the degree of separation, as trifid, quadrifid, tripartrite, quadri- 

 partrite, trilobate, quadrilobate, etc. So far as the surface is 

 concerned, it may be smooth or it may be hairy" and the hairs 

 may be of various kinds. In the Compositse the upper part is 

 covered with rigid, collecting hairs, serviceable in brushing out 

 the pollen from the anthers, and in some members of the Legu- 

 minosae a ring or fringe of stiff hairs, just beneath the stigma, 

 prevents the pollen from falling upon the stigma of the same 

 flower. 



The Stigma. This is the part which receives the pollen. 

 It is either destitute of an epidermis or covered with a very 

 thin one, secretes a viscid secretion, and is usually more 

 or less roughened or papillose. This structure doubtless has 

 reference to securing the pollen that is conveyed to it and 

 ensuring its germination. In form and character the stigma 

 differs much in different flowers. It may be terminal, or located 

 at the apex of the style, or it may be lateral or confluent down 

 its side ; it may be simple or lobed ; it may be discoid ox flattened 

 and disc-like, hemispherical, globular, filiform, petaloid, plumous 

 or feathery, radiate or rayed like the spokes of a wheel, stellate 

 or star-shaped, cucullate or hooded, flabellate or fan-shaped, 

 rostrate or beaked. 



The Ovule. The ovules are the small bodies in the ovary, 

 which, after fertilization, develop into seeds. By some botanists 

 they are regarded as homologous with the lobes or teeth on the 

 margin of a toothed leaf, and by others as modified plant hairs. 

 They are usually borne on a definite ovule-bearing portion of the 

 interior of the ovary, called the placenta, but occasionally they 

 occur without order on any portion of the ovary walls. 



A complete ovule, Fig. 269, consists of a nucellus, or body, two 

 coats, the outer called the primine and the inner the secundine, 

 and a funiculus or podosperm, the stalk of the ovule. The coats 

 do not completely enclose the nucellus, but a little opening for 

 the reception of the pollen tube is left at the apex. This opening 

 is called the micropyle or foramen. The base of the ovule, where 



