9 



BOTANY. 



have been converted into carpels, as above. Observe the 

 placentation of any multiple pistil, and you will invariably 

 find that the placenta of each carpel is central in the same 

 way that, in the artificial one, you have made the margins 

 of your carpellary leaves turn inward, and the midribs 

 outward. 



After thus preparing simple and multiple pistils from 

 foliage leaves, let us try to construct a compound pistil 

 from leaf-blades. If we can do this, it will give us a clear 

 understanding of the structure of syncarpous ovaries. 



Form, from foliage leaves, an artificial ovary of three 

 coherent carpels. A three-celled compound pistil consists 



FIG. 285. 



FIG. 286. 



FIG. 287. 



of three carpellary leaves grown together. It is as if, by 

 pressing together the carpels of your multiple pistil, they 

 should unite by their sides. To make an artificial com- 

 pound pistil, then, you have only to select three large, sym- 

 metrical foliage leaves, and pin or stitch them together in 

 such a way that their margins will meet in the center, and 

 their under surfaces will form its outer wall. If you can 



