162 



ORGANOGRAPHY. BOOK I. 



it is a fleshy solid body, interposed between the top of the 

 ovary and the base of the style ; and has given rise, when 

 much enlarged, to the unfounded belief in the existence of 

 a superior ovary in that order, as in Tarchonanthus. In Um- 

 belliferse it is dilated and covers the whole summit of the 

 ovary, adhering firmly to the base of the styles ; by Hoffiiian 

 it is then called styloiwdinm, a word which is seldom used. 



It is an opinion that daily gains ground, that the disk is 

 really only a rudimentary state of the stamens; and it is 

 thought that proofs of the correctness of this hypothesis are 

 to be found in the frequent separation of the cyathiform disk 

 into bodies alternating with the true stamens, as in Gesnei'ia ; 

 in its resemblance in Parnassia to bundles of polyadelphous 

 stamens; and particularly in the fact noticed by Brown, 

 that an anther is occasionally produced upon the higlily 

 developed disk of P^eonia Moutan. To which may be added 

 the observation of Dunal, that half the disk of Cistus vagi- 

 natus occasionally turns into stamens. [Considerations, &c. 



p. 44.) 



Like the petals, sepals, and stamens, the disk always ori- 

 ginates from below the pistil; but it often contracts an 

 adhesion with the sides of the calyx, when it becomes perigij-^ 

 nous, as in Amygdalus; or with both the calyx and the sides of 

 an inferior ovary, when it becomes epigynom, as in umbel- 

 liferous plants. 



10. Of the Pistil. 

 The last organ to enumerate in the flower is that which 

 constitutes the female system, or gyncccenm of Roper, and 

 which is usually called the pistil. In all cases it occupies the 

 centre of the flower, terminating the axis of growth of the 

 peduncle ; and is consequently the part around which every 

 other organ, without exception, is arranged. 



It is distinguished into three parts; viz. the ovary 

 (Plate V. fig. 7. «), the style (fig. 7./), and the stigma (fig. 



7.^). 



The ovary, called germen by Linnaeus, is a hollow case 



placed at the base of the pistil, enclosing the ovules, and often 



containing two or more cells or cavities. It is the part which 



