3W 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



disk forms a larire L'laiKlular riiicr. AVithout this are inserted the 

 aiidroceum and the perianth. The hatter consists of four sepals in 

 most species, especially in the J.ady's-mantle {J. vvlgaris^ L. — figs. 

 31);i, 894). These sepals are valvate in the bud ; and outside them 

 we find four alternating stipular bracts forming the calycle." In 

 this species the androceum consists of four alternisepalous stamens, 

 each consisting of a free filament and an introrse anther, which. 



Alchem'dla vulgaris. 



Fig. 393. 



Flower. 



Fig. 394. 

 Longitudinal section of Hower. 



dehisces longitudinally by what finally becomes a single cleft. On 

 the filament is a transverse articulation, a little below the anther. 

 The gyna^ceum of this plant is represented by a single carpel in- 

 serted into the bottom of the receptacle, and superposed to one of 

 the stamens. It consists of a unilocular, shortly-stalked ovary, sur- 

 mounted by a style which is inserted towards the bottom of its 

 internal angle, and terminated, after traversing the orifice of the 

 receptacle, by a stigmatiferous head. Within the ovary, at a point 

 corresponding to the insertion of the style, is a parietal placenta, 

 bearing a descending incompletely anatropous ovule, whose micro- 

 pyle looks upwards and outwards.^ The fruit is an achene, sur- 

 rounded by the sac formed by the dried-up receptacle. The 

 exalbuminous seed contains a fleshy embryo with its radicle supe- 

 rior. The other species of this genus may differ from A. vulgaris in 

 the following respects. — The bracts of the calycle may be equal in 



' L., fipec, 178.— DC, Prodr , n. 2. 



- We cMiiMDt consider this organ as a calyx, 

 and the inner cnvelojie as a corolla, as has been 

 supposed, for the leaves of the calycle do not ap- 

 pear till after the true perianth, which is of caly- 

 ciiial nature. 



* It hiis but one coat. It has been described 



as ascending, but its raphe, short though it be, 

 descends fioni the point of insertion ; and that 

 is the peculiarity of descending ovules. The 

 apparently ascending direction here observed is 

 due to the slightness of the anatropy of the 

 ovule. Only at first, while it is still orthotro- 

 pous, is the ovule of Alvhemilla ascending. 



