SPEKMATOPIIYTES : ANGIOSPERMS 



363 



gether form a common ovary, while the styles may also 

 combine to form one style (Fig. '624:, C), or they may remain 

 more or less distinct (Fig. 324, B). Such an ovary may 

 contain a single chamber, as if the carpels had united edge 

 to edge (Fig. 325, A) ; or it may contain as many chambers 

 as there are constituent carpels (Fig. 325, B), as though 

 each carpel had formed its own ovary before coalescence. 

 In ordinary phrase an ovary is ' either " one-celled " or 

 " several-celled," but as the word " cell " has a very differ- 

 ent application, the ovary chamber had better be called a 

 loculus, meaning "a compartment." Ovaries, 



A li C 



Fig. 325. Diagrammatic sections of ovaries : A, cross-section of an ovary with one 

 loculus and three carpels, the three sets of ovules said to be attached to the wall 

 (parietal) ; B, cross-section of an ovary with three loculi and three carpels, the 

 ovules being in the center (central) ; C, longitudinal section showing ovules 

 attached to free axis (free central).— After Schimper. 



therefore, may have one loculus or several loculi. Where 

 there are several loculi each one usually represents a con- 

 stitutent carpel (Fig. 325, B) ; where there is one loculus 

 the ovary may comprise one carpel (Fig. 324, A), or several 

 (Fig. 325, A). 



There is a very convenient but not a scientific word, 

 which stands for any organization of the ovary and the 

 accompanying parts, and that is pistil. A pistil may be 

 one carpel (Fig. 324, A), or it may be several carpels or- 

 ganized together (Fig. 324, B, C), the former case being a 

 simple pistil, the latter a compound pistil. In other words, 



