96 



MORPHOLOGY 



The component parts of a pistil are known as 

 CARPELS. The carpels, like all other segments of a 

 flower, are modified leaves. The leaf, in forming a 

 carpel, is folded in such a way that it forms a closed 

 chamber, termed ovary (fig. 89), terminating in a 

 slender filament, termed style, the apex of which 

 is usually rounded or discoid and termed stigma. 

 When the style is wanting, the stigma is said to be 



T> Fig-. 89.— Forms, &c., of Pistil 



A, Apocarpous, b. c, Syncarpous. o, Ovary ; 5, styles ; si, Btig-ma : J>1, placenta ; 

 ov, ovules ; rf, dorsal, and v ventral sutures, 



sessile. The ovary encloses one or more ovules, 

 which, as already mentioned, are destined to form 

 seeds, and the ovary when mature is known as the 

 fruit. In the majority of flowering plants the carpel- 

 lary leaf forms a closed chamber, the ovary, enclosing 

 the ovules and seeds within. These flowering plants 

 are therefore known as angiospermia or covered- 

 seeded plants, as opposed to a small minority of 

 flowering plants in which the ovules and seeds are 

 produced on open carpels, that is, not enclosed within 

 ovaries. These latter are therefore known as gymno- 

 SPERMiA or open-seeded plants (see fig. 278, 0). 



