funicle's Usage Examples:

- Campylotropous ovule of wall-flower (Cheiranthus), showing the funicle f, which attaches the ovule to the placenta; p, the outer, s, the inner coat, n, the nucellus, ch, the chalaza.

The ovule is attached to the placenta either directly, when it is sessile, or by means of a prolongation funicle (fig.

Sometimes a long funicle arises from a basal placenta, reaches the summit of the ovary, and there bending over suspends the ovule, as in Armeria (sea-pink); at other times the hilum appears to be in the middle, and the ovule becomes horizontal.

In this ovule the apex with the micropyle is turned towards the point of attachment of the funicle to the placenta, the chalaza being situated at the opposite extremity; and the funicle, which runs along the side usually next the placenta, coalesces with the ovule and constitutes the raphe (r), which often forms a ridge.

When the ovule is so developed that the chalaza is at the hilum (next the placenta), and the micropyle is at the opposite extremity, there being a short funicle, the ovule is orthotropous.

As the first integument grows round it, the amount of inversion increases, and the funicle becomes adherent to the side of the nucellus.

Ovular characters determine the grouping in the Dicotyledons, van Tieghem supporting the view that the integument, the outer if there be two, is the lamina of a leaf of which the funicle is the petiole, whilst the nucellus is an outgrowth of this leaf, and the inner integument, if present, an indusium.

The ovule is curved upon itself, so that the micropyle is near the funicle.

Synonyms:

funiculus, stem, stalk,

Antonyms:

rear, ride,