196 
PHARMACEUTICAL BOTANY 
single carpels. In the latter the young peas occupy a double row 
along one of the sutures (seams) of the pod. This portion corre¬ 
sponds to the infolded edge of the leaf, and the pod splits open along 
this line, called the ventral suture. 
Dehiscence, or the natural opening of the carpel to let free the 
contained seeds, takes place also along the line which corresponds 
to the mid-rib of the leaf, the dorsal suture. 
The gynoecium or Pistil may consist of a number of separate 
carpels, as in the buttercup or Nymphaea flowers, when it is said to 
be apocarpous, or the carpels composing it may be united together 
to form a single structure, as in the flowers of Belladonna and Orange, 
when it is called syncarpous. 
If the pistil is composed of one carpel, it is called mono car pellary; 
if two carpels enter into its formation, it is said to be dicarpellary; 
if three; tricar pellary; if many, poly carp ellary . 
Compound Pistils are composed of carpels which have united to 
form them, and therefore their ovaries will usually have just as 
many cells (locules) as carpels. When each simple ovary has its 
placenta, or seed-bearing tissue, at the inner angle, the resulting 
compound ovary has as many axile or central placentae as there are 
carpels, but all more or less consolidated into one. The partitions 
are called dissepiments and form part of the walls of the ovary. If, 
however, the carpels are joined by their edges, like the petals of a 
gamopetalous corolla, there will be but one cell, and the placenta 
will be parietal, or on the wall of the compound ovary. 
The ovules or megasori are transformed buds, destined to become 
seeds in the mature fruit. Their number varies from one to hun¬ 
dreds. In position, they are erect, growing upward from the base 
of the ovary, as in the Composite; ascending, turning upward from 
the side of the ovary or cell; pendulous, like the last except that 
they turn downward; horizontal, when directed straight outward; 
suspended, hanging perpendicularly from the top of the ovary. 
In Gymnosperms the ovules are naked; in Angiosperms they are 
enclosed in a seed vessel. 
A complete angiospermous seed ovule which has not undergone 
maturation consists of a nucellus or body; two coats, the outer and 
inner integuments ; and a funiculus, or stalk. Within the nucellus 
