166 



THE FLOWER. 



302. The Pistils, one or more to the flower, are the female or 

 seed-bearing organs. 1 A complete pistil is distinguished into 

 three parts : the OVARY (Lat. 

 Ovarium, Fig. 314, a, shown in verti- 

 cal section, and Fig. 3 15, by Linnaeus 

 named Germeri), the hollow portion 

 at the base which contains the 

 OVULES, or bodies destined to be- 

 come seeds ; the STYLE (&), or colum- 

 nar prolongation of the apex of the 

 ovary ; and the STIGMA (c), a portion 

 of the surface of the style denuded of epidermis, 

 sometimes a mere point or a small knob at the 

 apex of the style, but often forming a single or 

 double line running down a part of its inner face, 

 and assuming a great diversity of appearance in 

 different plants. The ovary and the stigma are the 

 essential parts. The style (as also the filament of a 

 stamen) may be altogether wanting. 



apices. It came in time to be used as now for the whole organ ; but Lud- 

 wig (Inst. Reg. Veg.), in 1742, apparently first so defined it, and introduced 

 the term Anther for the Apex of Ray, or Theca of Grew. 



1 Following Linnaeus, this term is here freely used in the plural, and for 

 each actual separate member of the gynoecium, each organ which has an 

 ovary, stigma, and commonly a style. Tournefort, who appears to have 

 introduced the word, employed it hi the sense of gynoecium. Many authors 

 define it thus, and then practically eliminate from botany this, one of the 

 oldest of its terms, and one by no means superfluous. The typical pistittum 

 of Tournefort is that of the Crown Imperial (Inst. i. 69, & tab. 1) and the 

 name is from the likeness to a pestle in a mortar. As it soon became im- 

 possible to apply the same name to the pistil of a Fritillaria or of a Plum, 

 the cluster of such organs in Caltha, and the capitate cluster and receptacle 

 of such organs in a Ranunculus or Anemone, Linnaeus, and Ludwig before 

 him, took the idea of Tournefort's name, and used it accordingly. 



" Pistittum est pars interior et media floris, quae ex ovario et stylo com- 

 ponitur. . . . Ovarium est pars pistilli inferior, quae f uturi fructus delinea- 

 tionem sistit. . . . Stylus est pars pistilli ex ovario centre producta. . . . 

 Summitas styli vel ejus partium Stigma dicitur." Ludwig, Inst. Reg. Veg. 

 41-43, 1742. Without mentioning the plural, the pistil is thus defined in a 

 way which necessitates its use. Linnaeus (in Phil. Bot.) first defines Stamen 

 and Pistillum in the singular number, enumerating the three parts of the 

 latter, and afterwards (p. 67) declares that "Pistilla differunt quoad 



PIG. 314. Vertical section of a pistil, showing the interior of its ovary, a, to one 

 side of which are attached numerous ovules, d : above is the style, b, tipped by the 

 stigma, c. 



FIG. 315. A pistil of Crassula, like that of Fig. 312, but more magnified, and cut 

 across through the ovary, to show its cell, and the ovules it contains; also pulled open 

 below at the suture. At the summit of the style is seen a somewhat papillose portion, 

 destitute of epidermis, extending a little way down the inner face : this is the stigma. 



