104 



THE FLOWER 



ries within it an inheritance of the racial characteristics: 

 the forms of the leaves, the colors of the flower, the height 

 and character of the stem, even the movements of the 

 parent plant are passed down through the ovule (with the 

 aid, as will shortly be seen, of the pollen) to the plant 

 which is to spring from the ovule. 



189. The ovule-bearing organ is the pistil (Fig. 132). 

 Three parts are usually distinguishable : the hollow lower 

 portion is the ovary ; the column sur- 

 mounting this is the style; and at the 

 tip of the style sometimes on its 

 side a part of the surface without 

 epidermis and moist or even sticky, 

 is termed the stigma. The style may 

 be lacking ; the stigma is then sessile 

 on the ovary (Fig. 131). 



190. The flower commonly contains 

 but one pistil. Such flowers as those 

 of the Pea and Bean illustrate the 

 simplest case of all, when the pistil is 

 solitary and has but one cavity with 

 ovules borne on but one v side -of it. In the Buttercup 

 (Fig. 133) there are many pistils, each simple, with a 

 single cavity, containing but a 

 single ovule. In the majority 

 of plants, however, the two or 

 more original pistils grow up 

 from a very early stage in their 

 development united throughout 

 the greater part of their length. 

 Compound pistils are thus 



formed. The several combined pistils are then termed 

 carpels. 



191. The portion of the ovary to which the ovules are 

 attached is the placenta, and the manner in which the 

 ovules are distributed on the interior surfaces of the. ovary 

 is the placentation. When the ovules are numerous,, the 

 placenta is apt to be a well-developed cushion or projection 



132. Pistil of Wild Ge- 

 ranium ; ov, ova- 

 ry ; stl, style ; 

 stg, stigma. 



133. Flower of the Buttercup. 



