RANUNCULACEM 



61 



\ 



PcEonia Moutan. 



Fig. 113. 



Fruit opened. 



number of free carpels/ each composed of a unilocular ovary taperlno- 

 above into a style ; the inner face of this is traversed by a longitudinal 

 groove, with thick everted margins covered with stigmatic papilla?. 

 In the inner angle of the ovary is a vertical placenta, supportino- 

 two rows of nearly horizontal anatropous ovules,' placed back to 

 back. The fruit is formed of 

 as many follicles, surrounded 

 by the persistent calyx, and 

 dehiscing along the inner angle 

 (fig. 113) to free the large seeds 

 (fig. 114), each of which contains 

 an embryo surrounded by fleshy 

 albumen, and has its funicle di- 

 lated around the hilum to form 

 a fleshy aril of no great size.^ 



Instead of a pentamerous 

 quincuncial corolla, the Pseonies 

 have sometimes two corollas each formed of three petals, of which the 

 outer ones alternate with the three inner petals, and the inner ones 

 alternate with the outer. This is constant in P. Witfmamiiana Stev.," 

 a species in which the corolla is yellow, instead of being white 

 or red, like that of the other Paeonies, and which may be made 

 the type, not of a distinct genus, but of a section^ which is to 

 the true Pseonies what Hejjafica is to Anemone, or Flcaria to 

 Ranunculus. The organization is in other respects similar ; and in 

 this species, as in all the others, the number of petals may become 

 much greater still, owing to deduplication, which affects the inner 

 petals in preference to the outer ones, or to the metamorphosis of 

 the outer stamens, as happens in double flowers. 



ToRonia pereffrina. 

 Fig. 114, 

 Seed. 



the gynEEceum the carpels, which were at first 

 near one another, diverge from the centre of the 

 flower before dehiscing separately, and tear this 

 disk more or less irregularly from above downwards. 



' When there are five or six they are usually 

 opposite the five or six innermost leaves of the 

 calyx. The number three is equally common, 

 and in P. Wittmanniana, where it is the rule, the 

 three carpels are opposite the three innermost 

 sepals. In the cultivated varieties of P. Moulan, 

 we see as many as fifteen or twenty carpels, often 

 sterile, grouped into a head like those of a 

 Ramtnculus. There are two carpels pretty often, 

 but very rarely only one. 



^ These ovules have two coats. The outer 



one forms at first a sort of hood with a large 

 opening externally. The short, thick, conical 

 funicle swells early to begin the formation of the 

 ai'il. At first the youngest ovules are on the 

 upper part of the placenta, and often (hut not 

 always) right down at its base also. Ilonce llio 

 evolution of the ovules commences towards tho 

 base of tho ovary, or at least below its middlo. 



•* Hut the existouce of wliii-h is, however, in- 

 contestible and constant, although the Jidiiniicu- 

 lacecc have been usually considered to want arils 

 entirely. 



■' Steven {Ami. Sc. Nat., ser. ;?, xii. ;i7l). 

 — Walp., Ann., ii. 11. 



* Tripaonia H. Bn„ Adnusouin, I. eif. 



