296 



TUli F LOW Kit. 



stood : but, as it involves an erroneous idea, the expressions, Shjlcs 

 distinct ; united at the base ; united to the middle, or summit, &c, 

 as the ease may be, should be employed in preference. 



559. A few casual exceptions occur to the general rule that 

 ovules and seeds are both produced and matured within an ovary, 

 namely, in a closed earpellary leaf or set of combined carpellary 

 loaves. In the Blue Cohodi (Caulophyllum thalietroides) the ovules 

 rupture the ovary soon after flowering, and the seeds become naked; 

 and in Mignonette they are imperfectly enclosed, the ovary being 

 open at the summit from an early period. In all such cases, how- 

 ever, the pistil is formed and the ovules are fertilized in the oidi- 

 nary way. 



5G0. Gyntccilim of Gyiimospcrmoin Plants. A far more remarkable 

 exception is presented by two natural families, viz. Coniferai (Pines, 



Firs, &c.) and Cycadacea3 

 (Cycas, Zamia). Here 

 ilm pistil, as likewise the 

 whole flower, is reduced to 

 the last degree of simplici- 

 ty ; each fertile flower con- 

 sisting merely of an open carpellary leaf, in place of an ordinary pistil, 

 in the form of a scale (Fig. 511-513, 515, 516), or of some other 

 shape, and bearing two or more ovules 

 upon pome part of its upper surface. At 

 the time of blossoming, these pistil-leaves 

 of the forming cone diverge, and the pol- 

 len, abundantly shed from the staminate 

 blossoms, falls directly upon the exposed 

 ovules. Afterwards the scales close over 

 each other until the seeds are ] ipe. In the 

 Yew there is no carpel or pistil-leaf at all ; 

 but the fertile blossom consists of a solitary 

 naked ovule, borne on the extremity of a 



FIG 511. Scale, i e. open pistil, from the cone of a Larch at the time of flowering, or a 

 little later ; the upper fide seen, with its pair of naked ovules. 



FIG. 512 Similar view of a Larch scale, when the seeds are partly grown. 513. A mature 

 scale, one of the seeds in its place, the other fallen (reduced in siie). b'A A seed detached, 

 with its wing 



FIG 515. Branchlet of the American Arbor -Yitre, considerably larger than in nature, ter- 

 minated by its pistillate flowers, each consisting of a single scale (an open pistil), together 

 forming a small cone. 51G One of the scales or pistils removed and more enlarged, thu it;sido 

 exposed to view, showing a pair of naked ovules on its base. 



