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, and then they are apt to be numerous, or only from some part of it, generally the top or the bottom. In this case they are usually few or single (solitary, as in Fig. [341-343]). They may be sessile, i. e. without stalk, or they may be attached by a distinct stalk, the Funicle or Funiculus (Fig. [340]).
Fig. 341. Section of the ovary of a Buttercup, lengthwise, showing its ascending ovule.
Fig. 342. Section of the ovary of Buckwheat, showing the erect ovule.
Fig. 343. Section of the ovary of Anemone, showing its suspended ovule.
319. Considered as to then position and direction in the ovary, they are
Horizontal, when they are neither turned upward nor downward, as in Podophyllum (Fig. [326]),
Ascending, when rising obliquely upwards, usually from the side of the cell, not from its very base, as in the Buttercup (Fig. [341]), and the Purslane (Fig. [272]),