ANGIOSPERMS. ^n I 



I. Gynseceum Superior ; flower hypogynous or perigynous. 



A. Ovules attached to the carpels. 



a. Ovary monocarpellary ; 



(a) flower with one ovary, 



(/3) flower with two or more ovaries. 



6. Ovary polycarpellary ; • 



(y) ovary unilocular, 

 (8) ovary multilocular. 



B. Ovules attached to the floral axis ; 



(e) ovule solitary, terminal, 

 (C) ovules one or more, lateral. 



II. Gynseceum Inferior ; flower epigynous. 



C. Ovules parietal ; 



{r}) ovary unilocular, 

 (6) ovary multilocular. 



D. Ovules axile ; 



(t) ovule solitar}-, terminal, 

 (k) ovules one or more, lateral. 



The Superior Gymrccum is constructed essentially from a peculiar foliar 

 structure, the carpellary leaves or carpels. These usually produce the ovules, 

 which generally spring from the margins of the carpels, as in Fig. 354, but fre- 

 quently also from the whole inner surface, as in Fig. 327 -^ (p. 467), and Fig. 351 

 C. The ovary is monocarpcUary when it consists of only a single carpel, the margins 

 of which are coherent, so that the mid-rib runs along its back, and the ovules, 

 when they are marginal, form a double row opposite to it. The inflexed margins 

 of the carpellary leaf ma}-, however, swell up into thick placentae (as in Fig. 355) 

 and produce a larger number of rows of ovules. The number of ovules is, on 

 the other hand, not unfrequently reduced to two (as in Amygdalus), or only one 

 {e.g. Ranunculus). In monocarpellary flowers there is only one such carpellary 

 leaf, as in Figs. 353, 354 ; in polycarpellary flowers there may be two, three, or 

 more, or even a very large number; if the number is two, three, or five, they 

 usually stand in a whorl ; if four, six, or ten, they are generally arranged in two 

 alternating whorls (see Fig. 351, B, I). When the number of monocarpellary 

 ovaries in a flower is considerable, as in Ranunculaceoe, Magnolia, &c., the part 

 of the axis which bears them is commonly elongated (to a very considerable ex- 

 tent for example in Myosurus), and their arrangement is then spiral. The mono- 

 carpellary ovary is originally always unilocular, though it may subsequently 

 become multilocular from the production of ridges by the luxuriant growth of the 

 inside of the carpel, which divide the cavity longitudinally into compartments, 

 as in Astragalus, or transversely, as in Cassia fistula. Ovaries of this kind may be 

 distinguished as monocarpellary with spurious loculi, but ought not to be called 

 polycarpellary. 



