96 THE STEUCTURE OF FLOWERS. 



As loni? as tlie cords are simple, i.e. up to the horizontal 

 lines in Fig. b, there is nothing to distinguish them from 

 cords of an axis, as in the pedicel. If, therefore, we regard 

 the branches above those levels as belonging to the floral 

 whorls, then the " axis " would terminate at different 

 heights up the receptacular tube — which would seem to be 

 rather too forced a view to be acceptable. 



Hence it would seem preferable to regard it entirely as 

 axial until the portions of the perianth issue freely from the 

 upper part of it. We might compare these branches of the 

 fibro-vascular cords embedded in the axis (o those belonging 

 to ordinary leaves, which traverse the stem for various 

 distances downwards till they ultimately vanish ; only in 

 the case of leaves they are not coherent into a common 

 cord below, but remain free from each other. Moreover, 

 other members of the Eosacece show that they cannot be 

 always petiolar ; because in the rose the sepals reveal their 

 foliaceous character, first by always bearing rudimentary 

 leaflets, and sometimes stipules as well at the top of the 

 tube (Fig. 24, p. 93). 



Further complications in the distribution of the cords 

 sometimes arise. Thus, in the tube of the Cherry, I find that 

 the petaline cords assist in furnishing the calyx-limb with 

 vascular cords, just as those corresponding to the arrested 

 stamens o£ the Primrose enter the corolla of that plant. 

 They either do not branch till they reach the angle between 

 the sepals, or else from a point lower down. The small 

 secondary branches are mainly directed outwards towards 

 the margin, as represented in Fig. 29 ; s being sepaline, and 

 p the petaline cords. 



In examining transverse sections of inferior ovaries, 

 what one almost invariably observes is an inner epidermis, 

 on some part or parts of which are placentas with ovules, 



