16 
LIFE HISTORY AND RACE HISTORY 
that correct determination of the number of carpels can only be had by 
studying the number of placentae. 
In the course of its phytogeny a flower may become complicated 
through the union of dissimilar parts. When the stamens are raised about 
the ovary and borne upon a calyx cup, such a condition, a perigynous 
flower, is regarded as an advance. Or, again, the ovary may become 
wholly inferior, with the petals and stamens as if borne on its summit and 
we have an epigynous flower which is regarded as a still further advance. 
Yet again, reduction in number of units in the circles, particularly in 
those of the androecium and gynoecium, results in a still further advance, 
culminating in such cases as that of the Sunflower Family, where the 
ovules are reduced to one and the flower conspires to produce a single 
The fruit is to be defined as the mature product of the ovule with all 
its appendages. On account of the diverse variety of parts which enter 
into the formation of fruits it is impracticable to give a scientific clas¬ 
sification of them on the basis of the terms used to designate them, but 
the more common types may be indicated. A follicle is the product of a 
simple pistil; it opens along the ventral suture. The true achene is de¬ 
rived from a follicle through reduction of the number of seeds to one, 
which obviates the necessity of the carpel splitting open; the carpel tissue 
is retained as a valuable protection to the seed. A legume is a special 
kind of follicle which splits along both sutures, the ventral and the dorsal. 
A capsule is the product of an ovary with two or more carpels which may 
split open in various ways. A capsule is, of course, an advance upon a 
follicle. If a capsule is derived from an inferior ovary it is a still further 
advance. If a capsular type of fruit is reduced to a 1-seeded structure 
and is inferior it is, to a still greater degree, derived and removed from 
the primitive state. All of these conditions may have their walls special¬ 
ized into hard or fleshy layers resulting in a great variety of stone fruits 
or fleshy fruits. 
We have thus come around to the seed again, completing the life cycle. 
The important observation just here is that every stage in the life cycle of 
the plant is in some way to be interpreted in the light of the evolutionary 
history of the ancestry of the group to which it belongs. 
ABBREVIATIONS. 
Am., America. 
Austr., Australia. 
Cal., California, 
cent., central. 
cm., centimeter.=about 5 lines. 
Co., County. 
cult., cultivated. 
dm., decimeter.=about 4 in. 
Eur., Europe. 
e., east, easterly, eastward. 
m. , meter.=about 3*4 ft. 
mm., millimeter.=l line, Vi 2 in. 
mt., mountain. 
nat., naturalized. 
n. , north, northerly, northward. 
Ore., Oregon. 
S. Cal., Southern California, 
trop. Am., tropical America, 
var., variety. 
w., west, westerly, westward. 
