VEGE TA TIVE REP ROD UCTION. 



239 



ner) face (fig. 246). In such cases the carpels are generally 

 aggregated in close spirals near the end of a thickish axis, 

 and finally ripen into a cone (figs. 341, 358), which gives 

 the name to one of the largest orders of gymnosperms, the 



Fig. 247. — A , shoot of the yew ( 'Faxus baccata) with three ripe seeds, each surrounded 

 by a fleshy aril. Natural size. ' B, ovule with its tip projecting from the scale leaves 

 of the shoot it terminates. C, the same, halved, showing the body of ovule (sporan- 

 gium) and the long tube-like integument. D, young seed of same, with aril partly 

 formed. E, mature seed, halved. The central (white) body is the embryo ; around 

 it (dotted) the food ; then the seed coat; then the aril (white). B, C, D, E, slightly 

 magnified. — After Kerner. 



Coniferse. (See further % 404. ) The ovules of some gym- 

 nosperms are not borne by carpels, but each terminates an 

 axis, as in the yew (fig. 247). 



335. The closed pistils of angiosperms are usually distin- 



