200 GENERAL BOTANY 



and that inside, along the edge which is posterior or 

 uppermost in the flower, are attached a row of tiny 

 greenish-white bodies. These subsequently become 

 the seeds, and are called ovules, the whole hollow 

 box being the ovary. 



Now if we examine a number of flowers of either 

 of these kinds, we shall always find the same parts and 

 the same numbers. There are always in the plants 

 mentioned, five sepals, inside and alternating with the 

 sepals, five petals, inside these again a ring of stamens ; 

 and an ovary with its style and stigma in the middle. 

 After a few days, the sepals, petals, and stamens fall 

 off and die, leaving only the ovary, which grows very 

 much larger, till from being from one-third or half- 

 inch in length it becomes, in C.ESALPINIA, two or 

 three inches long and nearly half an inch wide. In 

 POINCIANA it grows still more, becoming twelve or 

 eighteen inches long and one and a half to two inches 

 wide. It is now termed the fruit, and when quite 

 ripe is hard and dry, and splitting open along the two 

 edges allows the seeds to fall out. 



In C^SALPINIA there are six to eight seeds in each 

 fruit, and they are attached by short stalks (funicles) to 

 one (the upper or posterior) edge. The seeds we know 

 will, under suitable conditions, germinate and grow into 

 new plants, the rest of the fruit after hanging on the 

 tree for a while, drops off and decays. So that the 

 seeds are the only really permanent part, and the whole 

 purpose of the flower appears to be (and really is) 

 accomplished with the ripening of its seeds. 



Now looking at the whole bunch (inflorescence) we 

 see that the pedicels all slope upwards and outwards 



