14 INTRODUCTION. 



74. The Pistil is the uppermost or innermost of the floral whorls, 

 sometimes spoken of collectively as the gynoedum 9 and here, too, we see 

 but very little if any resemblance to leaves. There may be one or several 

 pistils, and these distinct or united. 



75. A perfect pistil consists of three parts. The ovary is its basal 

 portion and within this are the ovules,* one or many, which after 

 fertilization develop into seeds. The style is the part of the pistil next 

 above the ovary a sort of neck connecting it with the part above, called 

 the stigma. It may be long and filamentous, short and thick, or even 

 wanting altogether when the stigma is said to be sessile. The stigma is 

 the portion of the pistil specialized to receive the pollen, that it may 

 fertilize the ovule. It forms the end of the style, but not infrequently 

 extends down its side, when the style is spoken of as stigmatic down its side. 



76. Pistils are simple or compound, according as they are made up of 

 one or more leaves pistil-leaves or carpel-leaves as they are called, the 

 word carpel meaning a simple pistil or one of the component parts of a 

 compound pistil. It is most commonly used in the latter signification. 

 Often there is not the slightest resemblance in them to leaves, but an 

 extended study of the different forms would show that they are without 

 doubt altered leaves, and our simplest way of considering them is on that 

 supposition. 



77. A Simple Pistil is formed from a single leaf folded along the mid- 

 rib and the margins brought together, the upper side in, thus making a 

 single celled ovary, a single style, and, as a rule, a single stigma but the 



latter may consist of two lobes or crests instead of 

 being simple. The line corresponding to the mid- 

 rib is called the dorsal suture, and that corre- 

 sponding to the united margins the ventral suture. 



78. The ovules, one or many, are borne along 

 the united margins, and these, often turned in 

 quite a little, from what is known as a placenta 

 (pi. placentce). A flower may have a single 

 simple pistil or several, but in the latter case 

 they must be distinct in order to corne within 

 the definition. 



79. A Compound Pistil is formed from two 

 or more carpel leaves united by their edges, and 

 its compound nature is shown by the several 

 cells of its ovary, and its several styles or 

 stigmas one or all. From this definition we 



FIG. 30. see the degree of union is very variable. It may 



be only at the base, so that at a casual glance 



the carpels may seem to be so many simple pistils. Then, a further 

 union is seen (Fig. 30) where only the styles and stigmas are distinct. 

 A still further union is found in the pistil of the Basa-wood (Figs. 41- 

 4, 6), where, externally, only a five-lobed stigma suggests its compound 

 nature, the style being single and the ovary apparently, but this in 

 section is shown to be distinctly five-celled. 



*For terms descriptive of the parts, kinds and positions of the ovule, see 101-105. 

 Fig. 30. Pistil of the St Johnswort, shown to be compound by its three styles and three 

 cells of the ovary. (From Gray.) 



