METAMORPHOSIS. 



187 



the latter is nevertheless clothed with the ventral 

 portions of all the carpels, for, in Primulaceae, for 

 example, the ovules are developed in the same basi- 

 petal manner, and are supplied with inversely-orien- 

 tated bundles. Hence we must regard the ovary of 

 Primulacese, etc., as originally a septate one which has, 

 in the course of time, completely lost all trace of its 

 partitions. Magnus found 2-merous bilocular (below) 

 ovaries of P. sinensis, in which no shadow of doubt 

 existed that the ovules belonged to the carpels. So 

 that in the normal carpel of Primula the dorsal and 

 ventral portions of the pitcher are alone present, 

 having lost continuity with each other owing to the 

 abortion of the lateral portions ; and such a structure 

 is precisely comparable to the carpelloid stamen above- 

 described whose median placenta existed as a free 

 ventral portion of the stamen ; also to the perianth - 

 leaf of Narcissus with its corona-portion. No doubt, 

 originally, the ovules were situated on the margins of 

 lateral lobes of the carpel. Some of the carpellodic 

 stamens show us this original carpellary structure ; 

 Masters also figures an open carpel bearing ovules 

 along its margin. As showing the truth of the 

 morphological explanations given above, such carpel- 

 lodic stamens exhibit an extreme reduction of the 

 median ventral placenta, and where separate open 

 carpels occur the placenta sometimes becomes resolved 

 into distinct ovuliferous leaflets, and in other cases the 

 ovules, besides being borne on the margins of the 

 carpels, also occur on their ventral surface. 



In the light of these explanations, conjoined with 

 a wide survey over the whole field of both normal 

 and abnormal structures, it is seen how many strange 

 configurations, hitherto utterly inexplicable, become 

 merged together into one single and simple pheno- 

 menon, viz., the fusion by their outer margins, across 

 the (usually) ventral surface of the foliar organ, of 

 two basal lobes to form a (usually) ventral lamina, 

 which may or may not unite along its median line 



