FORMS OF THE RECEPTACLE. 



213 



392. Instead of forming a stalk, the elongation may be continued 

 between the carpels in the form of a slender axis, as in Gera- 

 nium (Fig. 410, 411), and in the carpophore 

 of the fruit of Umbelliferae, Fig. 412. In 

 Geranium, this prolongation of receptacle 



extends far above the ovaries as a beak, to which the styles are 

 adnate for most of their length. 



393. In Nelumbium (Fig. 413), the gynophore, or portion of 

 receptacle above the stamens, is enlarged into a singular broadly 

 top-shaped body, with a flat summit, in which the pistils (a dozen 

 or more isolated carpels) are separately immersed. 



394. A Disk is a part of the receptacle, or a development of it, 

 enlarged under or around the pistil. When under it or around 

 its base and free from the calyx, 



the disk is hypogynous, as in 

 Orange, Fig. 414. Here it is a 

 kind of gynobase. When adher- 

 ent to or lining the base of the 

 calyx, it is perigynous, as in 

 Rhamnus (Fig. 415,416) and Cherry (Fig. 337) : when carried 

 by complete adnation up to the summit of the ovary, it is epigy- 

 nous, as in Cornus, in Umbelliferae, &c. Not rarely it divides 

 into lobes, as in Vitis (Fig. 379, 380), in Periwinkle and most 

 Apocynaceous plants, and in Cruciferae. These are termed glands 

 of the disk, and indeed are commonly glandular or nectariferous. 



FIG. 410. Gyncecium of Geranium maculatum. 411. The same with fruit mature, 

 the five ovaries or cells and the lower part of their styles separated and recurving away 

 from the prolongation of the axis or receptacle, to which they were at flowering-time 

 firmly attached. 



FIG. 412. Mature fruit of Osmorrhiza, the two carpels splitting away below from 

 the filiform prolongation of the receptacle, or carpophore. 



FIG. 413. The top-shaped receptacle of Nelumbium, with the pistils, immersed in 

 hollows of its upper face. 



FIG. 415. Flower of a Rhamnus or Buckthorn, and 416, section of the same, show- 

 ing a thickened perigynous disk. 



