376 MORPHOLOGY. 



The structure of some Malvacece also deserves remark (Malva, Al- 

 thcea, Lavatera (fig. 218.), Malope, &c.). Here the axis of the flower 

 forms a conical or flat hemispherical body (fig. 218. n.) (gynophorum) 

 in the middle of it, on which a whorl of carpels (fig. 218. q) is produced 

 in (in most) a simple circle, or tortuously alternating up and down 

 (Malope\ in the axils of which one or two seed-buds are developed 

 (fig. 218. ik Im.) The carpels with their lower parts (218. p) embrace 

 the seed- buds on the outside and laterally, and are blended together so 

 far by the outer surfaces of their incurved borders ; a higher part of the 

 carpels (fig. 218. from the seed-bud to s o) (growing together in the same 

 way) forms a half canal, the lower open side of which rests upon the 

 spermophore ; lastly, in the upper portion, the carpels become par- 

 tially blended together by their borders, and thus form one canal of the 

 style (fig. 218. from s to a little below t\ and remain partly free, forming 

 the stigmas (fig. 218. t.) Here then is a perfectly free communication 

 from the exterior to the seed-buds, which is scarcely anywhere so easy to 

 trace as here. It is inconceivable to me how Hartig can say, " There 

 are cases in which the ovules do not lie in the interior of the canal of the 

 style enlarged into a seminal cavity, but are perfectly closed up by 

 masses of cells, in which, in some measure, a parietas (? ! !) extrauterina 

 takes place, as in the Malvacea, the Cruciferce, Campamdacece, and 

 many other plants, in which no connection of the ovarian cavity with 

 the stigma by special conducting tissue ever exists." In the Campanu- 

 lacece and Cruciferce even, it is certainly anything but difficult to trace 

 the canal from the stigma to the cavity of the germen ; but in the Mal- 

 vacece Hartig must know, that he has either not investigated the matter 

 at all, or in the most superficial manner possible. 



Symmetrical forms also occur in the pistil, although more rarely than 

 in the floral envelopes. Thus, the germens on the spadix of Crypto- 

 coryne spiralis are formed so obliquely, that almost the whole circum- 

 ference is formed on one side only ; and the stigmas, instead of lying 

 opposite the base, are pressed quite close to the spadix, which give rise 

 to a completely false idea of the condition of organisation. Other ex- 

 amples are afforded by the Scrophulariacece and allied families, &c. A 

 strange, hitherto unmentioned form of the germen is exhibited by Ce- 

 losia ; here, when the long style is cut away, the germen has exactly the 

 form of a perfect Agaric ; the stipe contains the funiculi of the (numerous) 

 seed-buds, the pileus the seed-buds themselves. 



159. The structure of the pistil differs with the different 

 modes of its origin, and still more in reference to specific peculiari- 

 ties. Like every newly-formed part of a plant, it consists origin- 

 ally of uniform, delicate parenchyma, in which an epithelium on 

 both the outer and inner surfaces is distinguishable. Gradually, but 

 sometimes not till a late period, or in certain cases not at all, the 

 vascular bundles are organised from the parenchyma ; in the single 

 carpel there is usually one main bundle, corresponding with the 

 central rib of the leaf, and two others at the edges of the leaf; 

 in many-membered one-celled germens, the latter are frequently 

 wanting. In rare cases the vascular bundles are ramified in the same 

 way as in the leaf, which indeed is the natural consequence of their 

 morphological import, since germen and style correspond to the 

 vagina and petioles, which are generally traversed by only one, or a 



