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.
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.
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.