18 DEVELOPMENT OF THE FLOWER 
between the relative development of the fungoid part of the 
placenta and part of the stigmatic surfaces. 
I conceive that the structure of this pistillum is quite 
subversive of the idea of the stigma being the denuded apex 
of the style, for in the first place the structure of a stigma 
which is arranged as it, were on two lines along a division 
of the style is fatal to such an idea, and we have an instance 
of the cellular growths from the margins of the carpellary 
leaves assuming the same appearance in both the parts re- 
moved from the influence of pressure. This is certainly the 
case, except in the most confined parts of the ex snis canal 
where there is a tendency to fungoid growth. 
A stigmatic surface arranged in two lines along the inner 
face of a style is compatible with the Lindleyan theory, to 
which indeed none but punctiform stigmata can be made 
applicable. An assumption of decurrence might explain it; 
but this is not warrantable, for it does not explain the visible 
line dividing off such stigmatic surfaces which is always in a 
direct correspondence with the ventral suture, and if the 
stigmatic surface originates from the apex of the style, it 
appears to me that the stigmatic surface would be most 
developed at that point: this is so far from being the case, 
that an additional experience of several years, including even 
the startling career of M. Schleiden, has but not little modi- 
fied Mr. Lindley's ideas concerning the stigma. In the Key 
to Botany A. D. 1835,—the stigma is said to be the denuded 
apex of the midrib: in the Introduction to Botany A. D. 
1839, it is the upper extremity of the style. But although this 
latter definition is less precise, and therefore less liable to 
error, it has not been adopted exclusively, for at page 199, 
the stigma is said to be the termination of the dorsal suture. 
The stigma is the exposed surface portion of the conduct- 
ing tissue, and as this tissue is a mere continuation of the 
placenta, it follows that no stigma can be really a simple 
organ. 
In its simplest form it is due to its being reduced to a 
point, formed by the coalescence of two others. 
No stigmata belonging to one carpellary leaf can be op- 
