1291. The _spathe-leaf_ becomes a _siliqua_, or hollow capsule, in
which forsooth the septa are arrested, and the seeds stand upon the
conjoined edges of the carpels, upon their walls, or also upon a
mediate replum and placenta, as in the proper Siliquose plants with the
poppies, Resedæ, Primulæ and pinks.
1292. The reticular-leaf is perfected into a _capsule_, where the
carpels are so confluent with each other, that they form septa and bear
the seeds upon the internal angle or upon the axis, as in the Rues. If
these carpels separate, then polycarpal plants, as the Ranunculaceæ,
Malvaceæ, Magnoliaceæ, originate. In these the median columella is the
elongated floral peduncle. If they separate, without leaving a median
columella between them; they are then simply called _follicles_, as in
the larkspur and celandine. If this capsule be compressed flat; it is
called _legumen_, as in the beans.
1293. The cariopsis generally contains one and that a large seed; the
siliqua or hollow capsule is many-or small-seeded; the follicle few-or
moderately-seeded; the capsule many-and also few-seeded.
1294. In the cariopsis the seed is attached to the base or apex; in
the follicle in a row upon the inner suture; in the siliqua upon
the carpellar edges, or their walls, and on a meso-replum or frame;
in the capsule upon the inner angle or on a middle axis or column.
Seed-bearing alæ to the columella are only the carpellar edges
prolonged into the loculi or cells.
STYLE.
1295. What the stamen-filament is for the petal of the corolla, that is
the style for the ovarial petal or the carpel, viz. the rib that has
become free. As, however, the leaf-formation in the ovary is generally
imperfect, so also is the separation of the tissues or systems. The
style is not therefore freed at once from its root, but projects only
above the leaf-substance.
1296. But as the singular circumstance occurs in the ovary that the
midrib is arrested while only the marginal ribs shoot out, so is the
style the elongation and coalescence of the two marginal ribs. Every
stigma is therefore biacuminate.
1297. There must always be as many styles as the ovary has carpels or
cells. If only one style appear, in this case it is then made up of
several mid-ribs. In most instances the number of styles is recognized
in the number of the stigmata.
1298. As being the rib of the ovary the style is the last ramuscular
extremity of the stalk, which is resolved into mucus upon the stigma.
1299. Stamen-filament is related to style, as leaf to stalk, thus as
air to earth, as Differencing to Differencizable, as electrism to
chemism or rather nutrition. This is the lower comparison; in a true
sense they are related as light to heat.
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