Abstract
IN a preliminary notice (Bull. Classe des Sci. (Acad. Roy. de Belgigue) 5e Série, tome 17, 1931), Grégoire has criticised the view of the foliar nature of carpels, and in a fuller treatise he proposes also to extend the argument to the comparison of stamens with leaves, and, in fact, of the flower with a vegetative bud. His criticism is based on ontogeny; he points out that when carpels are formed, they do not appear as lateral structures on the floral axis, and the apex of the latter can never be recognised as still persistent in the centre of the flower. Further, he considers that the margins of the carpellary upgrowths do not meet and fuse marginally as is usually supposed, but are merely the appearances due to the upward extensions of a split in the tissues of the lower part, as this expands to form the cavity of the ovary. Most botanists agree, however, that the comparative morphology of vegetative and reproductive shoots supports the general view of the homology of vegetative bud and flower, but the changed type of growth has so altered the floral parts that, the nearer one passes towards the centre of the flower, the more difficult does it become to press detailed comparisons.
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The Nature of Carpels. Nature 129, 501 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129501c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129501c0