THE GYMNCECIUM. 149 



When fully developed the pistil, like the stamen, consists of 

 three parts, the stigma, the style, and the ovary (Fig. 53.) 



Fig. 53. 



The ovary a, is the lower part of the pistil, containing within 

 its cavity the ovules or rudimentary seeds d. and forms after 

 the impregnation of the ovules the future seed vessel. The 

 apex of the ovary usually tapers into a slender column called 

 the style 6, the summit of which is .commonly somewhat 

 enlarged, denuded of cuticle, and secretes a viscid matter to 

 which the pollen grains adhere. This denuded and glandular 

 summit of the style is termed the stigma, c. 



The ovary and stigma are never absent, the style sometimes 

 is ; in which case the top of the ovary itself is called the stigma, 

 as in the poppy, where it appears like the spokes of a wheel. 



Like the other organs of the flower, the pistil is composed of 

 one or more modified leaves, which in this instance are called 

 carpels, from their connexion with the fruit, (xaprtoj, fruit.) 

 These leaves are folded inwardly, and their margins united, so 

 that their lower surface forms the outside, and their upper 

 surface the inside of the carpel, the ovules being developed 

 along the margin of the leaves. That this is the true nature 

 of the pistil, the monstrous variety of the garden cherry con- 

 clusively proves. In this flower, the place of the pistil is 



