STRUCTURE OF FRUIT. 101 



the gynobase, which is nothing but an extraordinary 

 swelling of the base of the carpellary styles united 

 together. The true axis is usually elongated ; but it is 

 nearly globular in several Anonaceas ; it also takes this 

 form and a fleshy consistence in the Strawberry, where it 

 presents, moreover, the singularity of detaching itself 

 from a kind of more solid axis in the centre ; the 

 carpels of the Strawberry are little granular styliferous 

 bodies, dispersed over the surface of a fleshy body 

 which serves for their nourishment, and is nothing but a 

 round axis, to which several authors have given the 

 name of Polyphore. These axes must not be con- 

 founded with the thecaphores, which form part of the 

 carpels, of which they are, as it were, the petioles : the 

 axes, on the contrary, are prolongations of the pedicel 

 of the flower. 



Hitherto 1 have always spoken of the carpels as being 

 leaves folded inwards, or upon their upper surface ; but 

 it would seem that the inverse organization takes place 

 in some Cucurbitacece ; when the young fruits of this 

 family are cut transversely, we find the carpels with 

 their backs opposite the centre of the fruit, and the 

 ovules are directed towards the side of the adherent 

 calyx. Are these carpels folded in a contrary direction 

 to all other plants, or have they twisted upon them- 

 selves before their development, so as to have the upper 

 part of the carpellary leaf directed towards the outer 

 side of the fruit ? I am ignorant of this. I would ven- 

 ture to add here an observation which is at least sing-u- 

 lar : — M. Seringe found flowers of the Gourd, the 

 anthers of which accidentally bore ovules, which were 

 directed outwards, because the anthers are extrorse. Is 

 there any relation between the extrorse direction of the 

 anthers and of the carpels of the Cucurbitaceas ? Does 

 this relation exist in other families ? These are ques- 



VOL. II. M 



