289 
On the Structure of the Pistt in EscHsCHOLTZIA CALIFORNICA ; by 
the Rev. J. S. Henstow, Professor of Botany in the University of 
Cambridge. 
(Tab. X. A.) 
A happy chance will sometimes favour the determination of a doubt- 
ful point, and enable us to prove more than the most ingenious specu- 
lations of the profound botanist. I was lately induced to re-consider 
the theory by which Dr. Lindley explains the structure of the pistil in 
Eschscholtzia and in Crucifere, from having met with a plant of 
Lischscholtzia Californica, a flowers were apparently producing 
more than four stigmata. It will be remembered that Dr. Lindley 
(Bot. Reg. vol. 14. Pl. one considers the pistil in this plant to be 
composed of four carpels ; of which two are reduced to the condition of 
mere ovuliferous placente, each bearing a stigma; whilst the other two 
become non-placentiferous valves, also bearing stigmata even more 
largely developed than the others. 
In order to trace the gradual development of the pistil, I began with 
flower-buds in very early stages, where this organ was not more than 
the hundredth part of an inch either in length or in breadth. Plate X.? 
fig. 1. is a pistil in this very early stage. It presents a laterally com- 
pressed pouch-like cellular mass, open above, with two nascent stigmata 
(S) at opposite ends. Upon opening it (Fig. 2.) there are not as yet 
to be seen any distinct traces of placente. In Fig. 3, 4, 5, are repre- 
sented the successive developments which the margin of the open ex- 
tremity of the pistil usually undergoes during the early stages of its 
growth, and up to a period when the placent and ovules have become 
distinctly formed. The two original stigmata (S) have been protruded 
to a considerable extent, and the two intermediate and smaller stigmata 
(t) have also made a marked progress. "The real structure of these 
smaller stigmata is best seen in certain pistils where (Fig. 6 and 8) in- 
Stead of a single lobe or prominence we find two such, indicating a 
tendency in the pistil to separate into two subordinate portions, and 
showing its structure to be really bicarpellary.  Dissections of these 
pistils (Fig. 7 and 9) show the mode in which the placentee (p) origi- 
nate. Each begins to develope as a double ridge of swollen tissue, 
contiguous to the sutural line which defines the limits of the rudimen- 
tary and combined carpels, and running from the base to the apex. 
