68 DEVELOPMENT OF THE FLOWER 
The stigmatic surfaces do not, as would be expected, al- 
ways have a numeric relation with the carpellary leaves. Of 
this the only instance, I yet know of, occurs throughout 
Asclepiadez. 
Were it possible to assume a quinary type of formation of 
the pistillum, the explanation would be easy, ahd the stig- 
matic lines would be double the number of carpellary leaves. 
But this assumption is not warrantable; the number of 
carpella is obviously 2, whether the mature, or the very 
young pistillum be submitted to examination. The articu- 
lation takes place at a very early period. The relation 
which the glands bear to the carpellary leaves is curious: 
one leaf has one corresponding to its dorsal suture, two 
others to its margins; while in the other the 2 glands are 
half way between the margins and dorsal suture. 
Of this curious structure I am unable to give any satis- 
factory explanation; the whole thing seems to me to turn on 
the close approximate adhesion of the anthere to the faces 
of the stigmata. 
Asclepiadez present most curious anomalies: the stigma 
is not perforated, so to say, by a stigmatic canal; although 
the opening corresponding to that canal is very manifest 
in an early period; the stigma is a solid cellular mass; 
hence the application of the pollen grains does not take 
place at the usual points, but along that which gives the 
readiest access to the canal. What is not a little singular- 
too is the separation of the styles, and the concretion o 
the stigmata. 
A thin transverse section of the disc of the stigmata 
certainly shews, that the whole outer face is lined by a 
grumous secreting stigmatic surface, which perhaps es- 
plains why the glands are binary, though it makes the ano- 
maly otherwise greater; for it is unusual, if it ever occurs, 
to find the stigmatie surface occupying the dorsum of the 
carpellary leaf. 
This secreting tissue is obviously continuous with the 
lining or contents of the canal of the style, into which it 
passes at the articulation. 
