. The natural history of plants. Botany. 44 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. lAnum perenne. five alternipetaloTis glands ^ The gyneeceum is composed of a free superior ovary, surmoTinted by a style soon divided into five branches superposed to the petals, with linear apex, elongated or capitate, bear- ing stigmatic papillae. The ovary contains an equal number of oppo- sitipetalous cells, in the internal angle of which a placenta is seen supporting two collateral, descending, anatropous ovules, with exterior and superior micropyle,^ capped by an obturator springing from the placenta above each ovule.
. The natural history of plants. Botany. 44 NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. lAnum perenne. five alternipetaloTis glands ^ The gyneeceum is composed of a free superior ovary, surmoTinted by a style soon divided into five branches superposed to the petals, with linear apex, elongated or capitate, bear- ing stigmatic papillae. The ovary contains an equal number of oppo- sitipetalous cells, in the internal angle of which a placenta is seen supporting two collateral, descending, anatropous ovules, with exterior and superior micropyle,^ capped by an obturator springing from the placenta above each ovule. From the outer wall of- each cell or the midrib a false partition is produced which advances more or less between the two collateral ovules and may even reach the placenta, and so isolate each ovule in a compart- ment representing a half cell. The fruit, generally accompanied by the persistent calyx, is a septioidal capsule which divides into five dispermous pieces or into ten monospermous ones, when the false partition divides at maturity. The seeds contain, under their triple coat,^ a fleshy albumen, often inconsiderable, surrounding a fleshy straight embryo, with superior radicle. The Plaxes are annual or perennial herbs, or suff'rutescent plants, with simple entire leaves alternate or rarely opposite, sometimes accompanied by two small glanduliform stipules. The flowers * are united in terminal or axillary cymes, sometimes biparous and more or less regular in their lower parts, sometimes uniparous and resembling more or less contracted or elongated Some twenty-four species have been described,^ natives. Fig. 76. Inflorescence. racemes. ' Often but very little noticeable. ' With double coat. ' Three principal layers are distinguished; one an interior membrane, thin brownish rather tough surrounding the albumen; more out- wardly a tissue also brown, paler, and stronger than, the first from which it easily separates; and outside a white layer remarkable for the way in which i
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1871
