XXXll INTRODUCTION. 



are distinct from each other, and the stamens are monadelphous, the petals are 

 often said to be inserted on or combined with the stamina! tube ; if the corolla is 

 gamopetalous and the stamens distinct from each other, the latter are said to be 

 inserted in the tube of the corolla. 



in perigynous flowers, the stamens are usually inserted immediately within 

 the petals, or alternating with them on the edge of the disk, but occasionally 

 much lower down within the disk, or even on the unenlarged part of the re- 

 ceptacle. 



in epigynous flowers, when the petals are distinct, the stamens are usually 

 inserted as in perigynous flowers ; when the corolla is gamopetalous, the sta- 

 mens are either free and hypogynous, or combined at the base with (inserted in) 

 the tube of the corolla. 



143. When the receptacle is distinctly elongated below the ovary, it is often 

 called a gynobasis, gynophore, or stalk of the ovary. If the elongation takes 

 place below the stamens or below the petals, these stamens or petals are then 

 said to be inserted on the stalk of the ovary, and are occasionally, but falsely, 

 described as epigynous. Really epigynous stamens (i. e. when the filaments are 

 combined with the ovary) are very rare, unless the rest of the flower is epi- 

 gynous. 



144. An epigynous disk is a name given either to the thickened summit of 

 the ovary in epigynous flowers, or very rarely to a real disk or enlargement of 

 the receptacle closing over the ovary. 



145. In the relative position of any two or more parts of the flower, whether 

 in the same or in different whorls, they are 



connivent, when nearer together at the summit than at the base. 



divergent, when further apart at the summit than at the base. 



coherent, when united together, but so slightly that they can be separated 

 with little or no laceration ; and one of the two coherent parts (usually the 

 smallest or least important) is said to be adherent to the other. Grammatically 

 speaking, these two terms convey nearly the same meaning, but require a dif- 

 ferent form of phrase ; practically however it has been found more convenient 

 to restrict cohesion to the union of parts of the same whorl, and adhesion to the 

 union of parts of different whorls. 



connate, when so closely united that they cannot be separated without 

 laceration. Each of the two connate parts, and especially that one which is 

 considered the smaller or of the least importance, is said to be adnate to the 

 other. 



free, when neither coherent nor connate. 



distinct is also used in the same sense, but is also applied to parts dis- 

 tinctly visible or distinctly limited, 



§ 13. The Fruit. 



146. The Fruit (15) consists of the ovary and whatever other parts of the 

 flower are persistent (i. e. persist at the time the seed is ripe), usually enlarged, 

 and more or less altered in shape and consistence. It encloses or covers the 

 seed or seeds till the period of maturity, when it either opens for the seed to 

 escape, or falls to the ground with the seed. When stalked, its stalk has been 

 termed a carpophore. 



147. Fruits are, in elementary works, said to be simple when the result of a 

 single flower, compound when they proceed from several flowers closely packed 

 or combined in a head. But as a fruit resulting from a single flower, with 

 several distinct carpels, is compound in the sense in which that term is applied 

 to the ovary, the terms single and aggregate, proposed for the fruit resulting 

 from one or several flowers, may be more appropriately adopted. In descrip- 

 tive botany a fruit is always supposed to result from a single flower unless the 

 contrary be stated. It may, like the pistil, be syncarpous or apocarpous (125) j 



