ingly the pollen
can act upon the contained ovules only indirectly, through the stigma.
This is expressed in a term of Greek derivation, viz.:--

_Angiospermous_, meaning that the seeds are borne in a sac or closed
vessel. The counterpart term is

_Gymnospermous_, meaning naked-seeded. This kind of pistil, or
gynoecium, the simplest of all, yet the most peculiar, characterizes
the Pine family and its relatives.

[Illustration: Fig. 337. A pistil, that is, a scale of the cone, of a
Larch, at the time of flowering; inside view, showing its pair of naked
ovules.]

[Illustration: Fig. 338. Branchlet of the American Arbor-Vitae,
considerably larger than in nature, terminated by its pistillate
flowers, each consisting of a single scale (an open pistil), together
forming a small cone.]

[Illustration: Fig. 339. One of the scales or carpels of the last,
removed and more enlarged, the inside exposed to view, showing a pair of
ovules on its base.]

314. While the ordinary simple pistil is conceived by the botanist to be
a leaf rolled together into a closed pod (306), those of the Pine, Larch
(Fig. 337), Cedar, and Arbor-Vitae (Fig. 338, 339) are open leaves, in
the form of scales, each bearing two or more ovules on the inner face,
next the base. At the time of blossoming, these pistil-leaves of the
young cone diverge, and the pollen, so abundantly shed from the
staminate blossoms, falls directly upon the exposed ovules. Afterward
the scales close over each other until the seeds are ripe. Then they
separate that the seeds may be shed. As the pollen acts directly on the
ovules, such pistil (or organ acting as pistil) has no stigma.

315. In the Yew, and in Torreya and Gingko, the gynoecium is reduced
to extremest simplicity, that is, to a naked ovule, without any visible
carpel.

316. In Cycas the large naked ovules are borne on the margins or lobes
of an obvious open leaf. All GYMNOSPERMOUS plants have other
peculiarities, also distinguishing them, as a class, from ANGIOSPERMOUS
plants.

Section XI. OVULES.

317. =Ovule= (from the Latin, meaning a little egg) is the technical
name of that which in the flower answers to and becomes the seed.

[Illustration: Fig. 340. A cluster of ovules, pendulous on their
funicles.]

318. Ovules are _naked_ in gymnospermous plants (as just described), in
all others they are enclosed in the ovary. They may be produced along
the whole length of the cell or cells of the ovary