An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions/Angiospermae

by Nathaniel Lord Britton & Addison Brown

Class 2.

Angiospérmae

Ovules (macrosporanges) enclosed in a cavity (the ovary) formed by the infolding and uniting of the margins of a modified rudimentary leaf (carpel), or of several such leaves joined together, in which the seeds are ripened.   The pollen-grains (microspores) on alighting upon the summit of the carpel (stigma) germinate, sending out a pollen-tube which penetrates its tissue and reaching an ovule enters the orifice of the latter (micropyle), and its tip coming in contact with a germ-cell in the embryo-sac, fertilization is effected.  In a few cases the pollen-tube enters the ovule at the chalaza, not at the micropyle.

Cotyledon one; stem endogenous.	Sub-class 1. Monocotyledones.
Cotyledons almost always two; stem (with rare exceptions) exogenous.	Sub-class 2. Dicotyledones.