Carpel synonyms

Each carpel has its own ovary, style (when present), and stigma, and may be regarded as formed by a folded leaf, the upper surface of which is turned inwards towards the axis, and the lower outwards, while from its margins are developed one or more ovules.

When the pistil is formed by one carpel the inner margins unite and form usually a common marginal placenta, which may extend FIG.

The morphology of the female flowers has been variously interpreted by botanists; the peduncle bearing the ovules has been described as homologous with the petiole of a foliage-leaf and as a shoot-structure, the collar-like envelope at the base of the ovules being referred to as a second integument or arillus, or as the representative of a carpel.

When in a compound pistil the style of each carpel is thus displaced, it appears as if the ovary were depressed in the centre, and the style rising from the depression in the midst of the carpels seems to come from the torus.