368 MORPHOLOGY. 



better comprehension of the conditions and of their internal 

 connections, I will proceed with the consideration of them in the 

 following order : 



a. The Pistil. 



b. The Spermophore. 



c. The Seed-bud. 



a. Of the Pistil 



158. To the pistil I only refer those parts which contain ac- 

 tual cavities, in which one or more seed-buds are subsequently 

 developed. In this sense of the word, the pistil is absolutely 

 wanting in the Conifera, the Cycadacea, and the Loranthacece. 

 According to the fundamental organs of which the pistil is formed, 

 three principal kinds are to be distinguished. These are the true 

 superior pistil (pistillum superum), the inferior germen (germen 

 inferum), and the stem-pistil (p. cauligenum). The first is formed 

 from one or more foliar organs ; the second, in its lower parts, 

 from the pedicels, in its upper part frequently from foliar 

 organs ; the third originates entirely from axial organs, above and 

 internal to the floral envelopes. A foliar organ, in so far as it 

 contributes to the formation of the pistil, is termed a carpel (car- 

 pelluni). The following cases merit a more detailed explanation. 



I. Of the superior Pistil. The pistil formed from a carpel 

 originates as a leaf, which, in the first instance, expands like a 

 leaf; then. its edges gradually grow together from below upwards; 

 the lower (vaginal) portion, by growing together, becomes a hollow 

 body, and forms the germen ; the upper part, not grown together, 

 but expanded free, forms the stigma ; the intermediate portion (the 

 petiole), when present, growing together into a tube, communi- 

 cating with the germen and opening externally at the beginning 

 of the stigma, forms the style (as in the Zea Mays). When 

 formed in this manner, the whole is a simple, one-mernbered pistil 

 (p. simplex monomerum). In this case, the germen is one- celled 

 only (germen uniloculare). In some cases, by a cellular growth 

 from the inner surface of the surrounding walls of the germen, 

 false septa are formed ; these are spurious dissepiments (dissepimenta 

 spuria)) by which the gefrmen is divided into spurious compart- 

 ments (germen spurie pluriloculare) 9 as in the Aracece. 



If the pistil is composed from several carpels, these may form 



a. Either into pistils, in the manner just described, and remain 

 separate = the multiple, monomerous pistil ( p. plura, monomer a), 

 or, standing in one or more circles *, become coherent with one 



* Lindley's explanation of the structure of the fruit of Diplophractum (Elements of 

 Botany, 1841, p. 503.} appears to me very adventurous; at any rate we have as yet 

 no accurate knowledge of the germen at the period of flowering, and therefore the 

 whole is at present altogether hypothetical. It seems much more probable to me that 

 the five inner chambers are by no means fruit-cells, but produced in a similar way to 

 the five exterior empty colls in Nigella. 



