132 INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY 
its apex. The other organs are borne in successive cycles 
farther and farther away from the tip of the receptacle. But 
in many of the most highly specialized kinds of flowers the 
receptacle, as previously stated, bears a sort of tubular or cup- 
like extension, on the rim of which the petals and the stamens 
are so borne as to surround the ovary (fig. 114, 4); or the 
extension of the receptacle may rise to the top of the ovary, 
so that the petals 
(if present) and the 
stamens appear to 
grow out of its top 
surface (fig. 114, B). 
When the ovary 
stands wholly above 
the — surrounding 
floral whorls, it is 
said to be superior, 
or the flower is 
hypogynous (mean- 
ing “under the 
ovary”). When the 
ovary is encircled 
by the other floral 
whorls, it is said to 
-- be halfinferior, or 
Fig. 115. Flower cluster of evening primrose the flower is perigy- 
nous (‘around the 
ovary”). When the petals and stamens appear to spring from 
the top of the ovary, it is said to be inferior, or the flower is 
epigynous (“upon the ovary”), as in the evening primrose, 
(fig. 115).1 
123. Floral diagrams. Lengthwise sections of the flower may 
he represented by simple diagrams like that of figure 102, B. 
These are convenient to show the relation of the other whorls 
to the pistil. Cross sections like those of figure 116 show the 
1 The suffix gynous refers to the ovary only by a fanciful figure of speech. 
