CHAP. II. 
OVULE. 
211 
base of the calyx, and bears the numerous stamens peculiar 
to these orders : here it is called gonophore (gonophorum) by 
De Candolle. When it is succulent and much dilated, so as 
to resemble the receptacle of a Composita, bearing at the 
same time many ovaries, as in the Strawberry and Raspberry, 
Richard calls it polyphore : most commonly such a receptacle 
is sufficiently described by the adjective fleshy. If only a 
single row of carpels developes upon such a receptacle, as in 
Ochna, and there is an oblique inclination of the carpels 
towards the axis of the flower, we have the gynobase (Plate 
V. fig. 3. a ) ; in the Geranium this part is remarkable for 
being lengthened into a tapering woody cone to which the 
styles adhere in the form of a beak ; in Nelumbium it is ex- 
cavated into a number of cavities, in which the ovaries are 
half-hidden. It may be conjectured that the receptacle is 
in reality the growing point of the flower bud, and that it is 
analogous to the spongy head of the spadix in Arum, and to 
the hard spines of the Blackthorn. 
In Caryophylleae an internode below the receptacle is 
elongated, and bears on its summit the petals and stamens : 
De Candolle calls this anthophore (anthophorum). 
13. Of the Ovule. 
The Ovule (Plate V. fig. 16. to 26.) is a small, semipel- 
lucid, pulpy body, borne by the placenta, and gradually 
changing into a seed. Its internal structure is difficult to 
determine, both in consequence of its minuteness, and of 
the extreme delicacy of its parts, which are easily torn and 
crushed by the dissecting knife. It is doubtless owing to this 
circumstance chiefly, that the anatomy of the ovule was almost 
unknown to botanists of the last century, and that it has only 
begun to be understood within ten or twelve years, during 
which it has received ample illustration from several skilful 
observers. Brown, indeed, claims to have pointed out its real 
nature so long ago as 1814; but the brief and incomplete 
terms then used by that gentleman, in the midst of a long 
description of a single species, in the Appendix to Captain 
Flinders’s Voyage, unaccompanied as they were by any ex- 
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