J 65 ORGANOGRAPHY. BOOK I. 



two-lobed Stigma is a two-lobed style, the points only of the 

 lobes of which are stigniatic : and in Lathyrus, and many 

 other Papilionaceous plants, Linnaean botanists call the hairy 

 back of the style the stigma ; while, in fact, the latter is con- 

 fined to the mere point of the style. 



Nevertheless, there are certain stigmas in which no 

 denuded or secreting surface can be detected. Of this nature 

 is that of Tupistra, in which the apparent stigma is a fungous 

 mass with a surface of the same nature as that of the style ; 

 in such a stigma the mode of fertilisation forms a very inte- 

 resting problem, which botanists have yet to solve. 



The centre of a stigma consists of tissue of a peculiar 

 character, which communicates directly with the placenta, 

 and which is called the stujmatic tissue. It is more lax than 

 that which surrounds it, and serves for the conveyance of the 

 fertilising matter of the pollen into the ovules. 



Such is a general view of the more remarkable peculiarities 

 of the female system. This part, however, bears so important 

 an office in the functions of vegetation, is so valuable as a 

 means of scientific arrangement, and is liable to such a great 

 variety of modifications, that it will be necessary now to con- 

 sider it in another and more philosophical point of view. For 

 we have yet to consider the structure of the compound pistil, 

 and to learn to understand the exact nature of its cells, and 

 dissepiments, and placentae, and the precise relation that these 

 parts bear to each other ; and also to prove that the necessary 

 consequence of the laws under which pistils are constructed 

 is, that they can be subject to only a particular course of 

 modification, within which every form must absolutely, and 

 without exception, fall. This enquiry would, perhaps, be less 

 important if none but structure of a very regular and uniform 

 kind were to exist; but, considering the numberless anoma- 

 lies that the pistil exhibits, it becomes at once one of the most 

 difficult and most essential parts of a student's investigation. 



In the days of Linnaeus and Gaertner, and even in those of 

 the celebrated L. C. Richard, nothing whatever was known 

 of this matter, and consequently the writings of those car- 

 pologists are a mere tissue of ingenious misconceptions. Nor 

 did the subject become at all intelligible, notwithstanding the 



