254 
broadens, so that the final stage is one in which the succession of cycles 
seems ta be centripetal rather than acropetal. 
Associated with the appearance of the cyclic stage is the establishment 
of a definite number of organs for each cycle. For example, the definite 
floral number for cyclic monocotyledons is three, but there are many 
spiral monocotyledons with no definite number ; the definite floral 
number for cyclic dicotyledons is usually five or four, but there is a host 
of spiral dicotyledons in which the numbers are indefinite. The cyclic 
condition is not necessarily attained simultaneously by all the regions of 
FIGS. 566-568. Pistils: 566, apocarpous; 567, syncarpous with free styles; 568, com- 
pletely syncarpous. After BERG and SCHMIDT. 
the flower. For example, in the buttercup the sepals and petals usually 
show the definite cyclic number five, but the stamens and carpels are 
still in the spiral condition of indefinite numbers (fig. 562). 
Zonal development. Another evident tendency among the flowers 
of angiosperms is the so-called coalescence of members of the same set. 
For example, the zone of tissue upon a receptacle which is giving rise 
at several points to a cycle of separate petals, sooner or later begins to 
develop uniformly, resulting in a corolla tube instead of several petals 
(fig. 563). This is called zonal development, and the sooner it begins the 
more completely tubular does the corolla become. This tendency to 
zonal development is observed in all the floral cycles, and this condition 
