STRUCTURE OF FLOWERS. 69 



The carpels are usually sessile, sometimes furnished at 

 the base with a small support independently of the 

 central column, and which represents the petiole of the 

 leaf; this little support receives the name of Theca- 

 phore. It is visible in several species of Sterculia, in a 

 great number of Leguminosae, Capparideae, (especially 

 in Cleome longipes, where it is nearly a foot long,) &c. 



The ovules are almost always attached to the margin 

 of the little leaf which, by folding, forms the ovary, or, 

 which is to say the same thing, on both sides of the inner 

 angle of the carpel; the portion, usually slightly thick- 

 ened, where they adhere, bears the name of Placenta ; 

 the apex of which and of the carpel is prolonged into a 

 filament, sometimes very long, at others very short, 

 called the Style, and this bears a glandulous organ, 

 glutinous at the period of fecundation, which receives 

 the pollen, makes it burst, and then imbibes the fovilla : 

 it is a kind of pistillary spongiole, and is called the 

 Stigma. Let us rapidly review these different points, 

 which we shall be obliged to revert to more in detail on 

 speaking of the fruit. 



The analogy of the carpel to the leaves is deduced 

 from the following facts: — 1st. It is frequently of the 

 same texture and colour, and has the same faculty of 

 decomposing carbonic acid gas when exposed to the 

 light. 2d. It frequently bears stomata, and when it has 

 hairs or glands, these organs are often analogous to those 

 of leaves. 3d. It very frequently presents nerves very 

 analogous in their distribution to those of leaves. 4th. 

 The ovules are situated in most carpels in the same 

 places which correspond to the germs, which in some 

 leaves, as in Bryophyllum, are developed without fecun- 

 dation. 5th. We not unfrequently see the carpels, by 

 degeneration, develop into true leaves, as I have ob- 

 served it in Lathyrus latifolius. We also very easily 



