6
5-nerved ; it is not impossible that in this there was a subjective tendency to consider it the
equivalent of the 5 free sepals of the male flower ; the disposition of the main-nerves,
however, is against the view and, taken by itself, proves either too much or too little ;
there are at least 11 nerves to be made out altogether, but if merely the strong nerves are
considered there are only three, whereof the two lateral are distinctly stronger than the cen-
tral one—a feature much more marked in certain abnormal flowers (PLATE 4, fig. 6) than in
normal ones. It may have been this feature that induced Baillon l to consider the in-
volving bract, which he terms a bracteole, as equivalent to two connate stipules. This
theory, however, is effectively refuted, as is that of the earlier writers, by the fact, pointed.
out by Briosi and Tognini, 2 that the whole of the nerves of the involving bract are branches
of a single vein which only breaks up to innerve the organ after it has entered it. The first
author to consider this organ a bract ( bracteola urceolata ), and not a perianth, was Schleiden, 3
though it must have been on theoretical grounds that he based his conclusion, not on his
having discovered the existence of the true perianth. 4
The orientation of these bracts has been somewhat differently interpreted. At times a
pair are shown with their free margins looking towards the leafy axis in parallel planes—
tangential to axis and at right angles to the plane of the leaf to which they belong ; at times
they are shown with their free margins looking towards each other—tangential to axis and
parallel with the plane of the leaf to which they belong. The changes in position caused
by the peculiar development of the female flower do ultimately lead to the second condition
being simulated. The primary orientation has, however, as might be expected, reference
not to the leaf to which the involving bract belongs, but to its stipules ; it is in the axils of
the stipules that these involving bracts lie, so that the axes of their centres and free margins
are in planes at right angles to the planes of the stipules. The organic centres of a stipule,
of its contained bract, and of the leafy axis are very nearly in the same straight line (PLATE
2, fig. 6; PLATE 3, fig. 1), and therefore in a plane radial to the leafy axis.
Female Flower. —The female flower proper, within the involving bract, is
composed of a thinly membranous, gamophyllous, hyaline perianth with an entire
and very nearly horizontal margin, closely embracing for rather more than half its
height, but quite free from, the ovoid ovary (PLATE 2, figs. 6, 9-12). There is
never any normal andrœcium within the perianth and between it and the
gynœcium. The gynœcium itself consists of a unilocular ovary (PLATE 2, figs. 6 ;
9-12), crowned by two filiform deciduous styles, of which the posterior and internal
is always slightly larger than the other (PLATE 2, figs. 4-7 ; 9), with hirsute
(subplumose) stigmas along their opposing faces and, towards the apex, round
their periphery (PLATE 2, fig. 13) ; they are usually quite free but sometimes be-
come slightly united below. Within the ovary there is a solitary ovule, pendulous
from the apex of the loculus, attached by a short funiculus just behind the point
of attachment of the posterior internal style ; the testa is olive-green, except for
an orange-coloured patch round the funicle. The ovule is uncinate ; curved on
1 Hist. des Plantes : Paris, 1875 ; 6, 159.
2 Intorno all' anatomia della Canapa , i. 37, t. 7, figs. 5, 6.
3 Principles of Scientific Botany ; Eng. transl. by E. Lankester : London, 1849 ; p.332.
4 In a valuable manuscript collection of drawings by Schleiden, preserved in the British (Natural
History) Museum, at vol. v., p. 45, Cannabis is dealt with. In these drawings there is no indication that
Schleiden had detected the true perianth.