. 
APOCARPOUS PISTIL. 273 
to the function it performs in the process of fertilisation ; and 
the flower receives corresponding names accordingly. In a 
syncarpous pistil, the number of the styles, or of the stigmas if 
the styles are absent, is also defined in a similar way. Thus, a 
flower with one carpel, style, or stigma, is monogynous, with two 
digynous, with three trigynous, and so on. These terms will be 
more particularly referred to when we treat of the Linnzan 
System of Classification, as inost of the Orders of that arrange- 
ment are determined by the number of carpels, styles, or 
stigmas, in the flower. 
Fic. 602. 
PN 2 Fic. 603. 
: oe 
Ss 
+ 
Ey 
j 
Fig. 602. Pistil of Dianthus Caryophyllus 
on a stalk, g, called the gynophore, 
below which is the peduncle. On the 
top of the ovary are two styles, the 
face of each of whichis traversed by 
a continuous stigmatic surface. 
Fig. 603. Pistil of Lathyrus odoratus. 
o. Ovary. c. Persistent calyx. On ° 
the top of the ovary is the style 
and stigma, stig. 
1. Apocarpous Pistil.—An apocarpous pistil may consist of 
two or more carpels, and they are variously arranged accordingly. 
Thus, when there are but two, they are always placed opposite 
to each other ; when there are more than two, and the number 
coincides with the sepals or petals, they are opposite or alternate 
with them ; it is rare, however, to find the carpels corresponding 
in number to the sepals or petals, they are generally fewer, or 
more numerous. The carpels may be either arranged in one 
whorl, as in the Stonecrop (jig. 581); or in several whorls 
alternating with each other, and then either at about the same 
level, or, as is more generally the case, at different heights upon 
the thalamus so as to form a more or less spiral arrangement. 
When an apocarpous pistil is thus found with several rows of 
carpels, the thalamus, instead of being a nearly flattened top, 
as is usually the case when the number of carpels is small, fre- 
quently assumes other forms ; thus, in the Magnolia and Tulip- 
tree, it becomes cylindrical (fig. 604); in the Raspberry (fig. 
606, J), and Ranunculus (fig. 542), conical; in the Strawberry 
( fig. 605), hemispherical ; while in the Rose ( fig. 454, r, r), it 
becomes hollowed out like a cup, or urn, and has the carpels 
i 
