230 GENERAL BOTANY 



We have here the result of the union in the lower 

 half of the fruit, of two completely closed carpels 

 forming a two-celled ovary with axile placentas ; and 

 in the upper half of two open carpels forming a one- 

 celled ovary with two parietal placentas. If now we 

 examine a fruit of the Poppy, Pappaw or Melon, 

 we shall find that the ovary (and the fruit) consist of 

 but one cell, not several, and that the placentas are on 

 the outer wall, just as they are in the upper part of 

 the Chilli fruit. So that, if the latter is due to the 

 carpels not forming a completely closed organ at the 

 top, in these it must be because they are open all 

 the way down. 



We come then to the conception of a carpel, as an 

 organ which has seeds on two placentas running along 

 two edges, and which usually is folded so that the 

 two edges and their placentas meet, and in many- 

 celled ovaries is joined to other carpels along the 

 same lines. And that in one-celled ovaries, the carpels 

 are not closed, but are nearly flat and joined to other 

 carpels along the placental edges, the placentas fusing 

 in pairs and forming as many lines of seeds, as there 

 are of constituent carpels. 



4. In POINCIANA and all plants like it, the style rises 

 from the edge furthest from the placenta, and is as it 

 were a continuation of it, and where an ovary has 

 several cells, i.e. is made of several carpels, the style 

 is in the same way a combination of the styles of 

 the carpels. We may see various stages of this com- 

 bination in VINCA, where the carpels are separate 

 but share one style, in AVERRHOA BILIMBI, and many 

 others, where there are five styles to the five-celled 



