PHANEROGAMIA : FLOWERS. 



373 



218 



by Griffith.* I think one may 

 obtain the clearest idea of the 

 pistil of this plant f by imagin- 

 ing the pistil of a Malvaceous 

 plant, e. g., Lavatera (fig. 

 218.), with the whole of the 

 stigmas (q) abbreviated to little 

 teeth, and the conical extremity 

 of the axis elongated like a 

 pedicel beyond the stigmas, and 

 then spreading out like an 

 umbrella. Here the carpels 

 form the germen and tube of 

 the style, while the axis is at 

 once central spermophore, con- 

 ducting tissue and stigma. 



The result of all these dis- 

 cussions is that the germen, 

 style, and stigma are by no 

 means definite fundamental 

 organs of the plant, but dif- 

 ferent modes of appearance, 

 sometimes of the axial, some- 

 times of the foliar, organs. 

 But the said parts are decidedly 

 inessential portions of the 

 flower, since they may be 

 wholly absent, and therefore 

 there is no thorough unity to 

 be looked for here. On the 

 other hand, the properly es- 

 sential organs of the flower are different as fundamental organs. The 

 stamens are always (only in Najas it is still doubtful) foliar organs ; 

 the seed-bud, and the part on which it is borne, the spermophore, also 

 constantly axial organs. The whole terminology must therefore really 

 be reconstructed, since germen, style, and stigma, as definite organs, 

 must be excluded. If we name every exclusively axial organ which 

 bears seed-buds spermophore, in plants with inferior germens no ger- 

 men exists, but merely a cup-shaped spermophore, a style and stigma 

 perhaps, or merely a stigma; in the plants with a stem-pistil there is 

 nothing but a false pistil, that is, a spermophore in the form of a pistil. 

 We shall hereafter find the scales of the Abietinece to be analogues of 

 these. It is also easy to see, that in a complete carrying out of such 



* Calcutta Journal of Nat. Hist. vol. iv. p. 150, et seq. 



f I only know the description, and have not seen the figures given by Griffith. 



2:8 Lavatera sanvitellensis. Longitudinal section of the flower, a, Pith ; b, epider- 

 mis ; c, cortical layer ; d, vascular bundle of the pedicel (e) ; d, f, g, remains of the 

 removed epicalyx, calyx, corolla, and stamens; h, peculiar spongy cellular tissue of the 

 receptacle ; i, k, I, m, external and internal integument, nucleus, and embryo-sac of the 

 seed-bud ; n, flat hemispherical extremity of the axis in the flower ; p, lower, q, inter- 

 mediate, r, upper part of the carpels, forming the cavity of the germen, style, and 

 stigmas ; s, conducting tissue, on which the pollen tube passes down into the common 

 space (o), from whence it penetrates into the separate cells of the germen, right and left 

 of the spermophore, which is here an immediate prolongation of the axis. 



BBS 



