ANGIOSPERM^, DICOTYLEDONES. 



775. 



whorls or one 5-partite whorl. Petals free. Gyii£eceum composed of 2, 3, or several 

 carpels joined together to form a unilocular (or spuriously bilocular), free, superior 

 ovary. Ovules attached to the interior walls of the carpels on ridges, or springing 

 directly from the walls of the ovary (see fig. 437 1). The androecium is composed 

 of either one whorl or many whorls of 2-5 stamens; the stamens are free, and 

 generally of equal length, and are not joined together or to the corolla (see fig. 243, 

 p. 168). The fruit, in most cases, is a many-seeded capsule (see fig. 437 ^); in the 

 genus Fumaria it is a small one-seeded drupe (see figs. 322 ^ and 322 \ p. 427). 



Sc^V3^V^t^ ' 



Fig. 436. — J^elumbium specwsum, the Indian Lotus, growing in a marsh, near Pekin (from a photograph). }f^*^^'^f!^^^=^ 



In the Capparidacese, it is borne on a long stalk. The Resedacese are interesting, 

 in that in many of them the ovary is open from the beginning, the stigmatic tissue 

 being formed by the swollen lips. The Cruciferse form a large and important 

 family of over 200 genera. For systematic purposes they are divided into the 

 following tribes: — Pleurorhizese, Notorhizese, Orthoploceae, Spirolobese, and Diploco- 

 lobese. Annual or perennial herbs and suffrutices with the foliage-leaves in spirals, 

 venation pinnate. Flowers in racemes, hermaphrodite, pseudo - hermaphrodite, 

 actinomorphic and zygomorphic. Floral-leaves difierentiated into calyx and corolla, 

 each of which is composed of two 2-merous whorls. Petals free. Ovary free, 

 superior. The carpels spring from below the end of the conical receptacle, and are 

 of two kinds: the two lower carpels bear no ovules, but form valves, whilst the two 



