70 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



see this analogy in certain monstrosities of Cherries, 

 which, instead of having but one carpel, bear several, 

 sometimes in the state of ordinary ones, at others in the 

 state of leaves folded upon themselves. 



The ovary being formed by the folding of a leaf, pre- 

 sents in different cases forms connected with its origin. 

 Thus when it is free from all pressure or cohesion with 

 the neighbouring ones, it is either compressed and flat- 

 tened, when the two halves of the leaves are even and 

 applied to one another, as in the Pea ; or swollen out, but 

 with a dorsal nerve, when the leaf has a middle nerve 

 and its sides are curved upon one another, as in the 

 French-Bean and Bladder-Senna ; they are nearly in the 

 form of a horn when the leaf has no middle nerve, as in 

 Colchicum. It sometimes happens that the margins of 

 the leaf are folded back upon themselves in the interior, 

 and form two-celled carpels, as in Astragalus. When 

 the carpels are verticillate and close to one another, they 

 then take, in consequence of their pressure, a triangular 

 form, the two lateral parts being fiat and inclined in- 

 wards, and the dorsal surface being flat or convex, or 

 even angular ; this is seen in the Crassulaceae. This is 

 still more evident when they are united together by their 

 lateral faces. 



The style arises from the carpel originally near the 

 apex, but sometimes from the middle or base of the inner 

 margin, as is seen in Alchemilla ; the point whence it 

 proceeds is always that where the placenta terminates ; 

 its length is determined by the proportion which ought 

 to exist between the position of the stigma and that of 

 the anthers ; when it is absent the stigma is sessile upon 

 the summit of the ovary. The form of the style is 

 usually slender, cylindrical, and simple. But as the 

 ovules are generally disposed upon two rows, or placentae, 

 each of them has its stylary prolongation, and that of 





