218 OF THE PISTILS. 



by excessive nourishment, or when the plant increas- 

 es much by root, as in the Fiery Lily, or true Lilium 

 bulbiferum. (108) 



4. Pi ST ILL A. The Pistils, no less essential than the 

 Sumieiis, stand within them in the centre of the flow- 

 er, and are generally fewer. When in a different 

 llovver, on the same or a different plant, they are not 

 always central. Linuceus conceived them to originate 

 from the pith, and th^ stamens from the wood, and 

 hence constructed an ingenious hypothesis, relative to 

 the propagation of vegetables, which is not destitute 

 of observations and analogies to support it, but not 

 countenanced by the anatomy and physiology of the 

 parts alluded to. 



Each Pistil, y! 177, consists of three parts. 1, the 

 Germen^ a, or rudiment of the young fruit and seed, 

 which of course is essential ; 2, the Stylus, b, style, 

 various in length and thickness, sometimes altogether 

 wanting, and when present serving merely to elevate 

 the third part. Stigma, c» This last is indispensable. 

 ks shape is various, either simple, scarcely more than 

 a point, or capitate, forming a little round head, or va- 

 rio isly lobed. Sometimes hollow, and gaping more 

 especially when the flower is in its highest perfection ; 

 very generally downy, and always more or less moist 

 with a peculiar viscid fluid, which in some plants is so 

 copious as to form a large drop, though never big 



(108) [Stamens change to petals in the Pink, Daffodil, Tulip, 

 Sec. They arc obliterated by cultivation, in the Guelder RosCv 

 Viburvum 0/iulus.~^ 



