Abstract: As everyone knows, the fruit of Schisandra chinensis Baillon is a kind ofaggregate fruits. But what kind of the fruits (drupe, berry, capsule orfollicle) the fruitlet is a question in plant taxonomy and plant morphology.Few people have studied the position where the fruits developed. In orderto clarify the problems mentioned above, anatomical studies were made onthe fruits of S. chinensis from the appearence of ovary to the formation ofthe fruits. The results showed that the simple pistil of apocarpous gynoeciumdeveloped spirally on the domed receptacle with superior ovary. Ovulewas anatropous and campylotropous with integuments of double layer, submarginal placentation. During the development of the ovary, spurious dissepiment consisting of several layers of cells occured on the dorsal sutureand a pseudo-dithecal ovary was formed. The fruits, the most primitiveform of the berries, were spiral-baccacetum. They were developed directlyfrom the spiral-follicetum which commonly existed in the plants of Magnoliales. The receptacle developed from domed form at flowering stage to acylindric form at fruiting stage. This may be a kind of atavism in thephylogeny of the plants.

Key words: Schisandra chinensis, Fruit anatomy, Submarginal Placentat, Spiral-baccacetum