262 



THE FLOWER. 



the carpellary leaf, or upon some portion of what answers to 

 them. When the ovules are numerous, and some- 

 times when they are few, the combined leaf-edges 

 enlarge to form a kind of receptacle for their attach- 

 ment or support : this is the Placenta. In Fig. 530, 

 the placenta is well developed, and also in such 

 S3*ncarpous ovaries as are illustrated in Fig. 536, 

 537, 544, and 545. In very many others (such as 

 Fig. 528, 531, 533), there is no particular enlarge- 

 ment of the leaf-margins visible, and no particular 

 ground for the use of this special term. Still it 

 is commonly used, as occasion serves, even for the 

 mere line or spot on which ovules are borne, as 

 well as for a more prominent development to which 

 the name was originally applied. 

 486. Simple or Apocarpous Pistils may be solitary, several, or 

 numerous. When indefinitely numerous, they are seldom in one 

 circle, but are capitate or spicate upon a proportionately enlarged 

 or prolonged receptacle, as in Anemone, Ranunculus, and most 

 strikingly in Myosurus ; when reduced to a single one, as in 

 Actsea, Podophyllum, 1 Barberry, and Plum or Cherry, the car- 

 pel mostly appears as if it were an actual termination of the 



floral axis. But even then the pistil 

 is hardly ever quite symmetrical in 

 shape : the ovary is somewhat gib- 

 bous or unequal-sided (as in Fig. 

 312, 315, 316, 528, 531-533), and the 

 stigma more or less oblique or even 

 wholly lateral. The continuation of 

 the latter down the whole length of 

 the ventral side of the style (as in Fig. 528, and also Fig. 549) 

 is not uncommon. In Schizandra (Fig. 531) it is continued 

 downward on the ventral edge of the ovary as far as to its 

 middle. 2 



1 Abnormal specimens of Podophyllum peltatum are occasionally found 

 having a gynoecium of from two to six separate carpels. 



2 Pleurogyne, a Gentianaceoiis genus so named on this account, has no 

 style nor apical stigma whatever, but has a long stigma extending down the 

 outside of each ovuliferous suture of its dicarpellary ovary for most of its 

 length. 



FIG. 530. Single simple pistil of Podophyllum, cut across to show the placenta, &c. 



FIG. 531. Vertical section of a pistil of Sdiizandra cocci nea; a side view showing 

 the stigma decurrent down to the middle of the ovary. 532. Pistil of Hydrastis ; ventral 

 view. 533. Pistil of Actsea rubra, cut across, so as to show the interior of the ovary ; 

 ventral view. 



