OUTLINES OP BOTANY. 



(2) the Style, proceeding from the summit of the ovary and sup- 

 porting 



(3) the Stigma, which is sometimes a point (or punctiform stigma) 

 or small head (a capitate stigma) at the top of the style or ovary, some- 

 times a portion of its surface more or less lateral and variously shaped, 

 distinguished by a looser texture, and covered with minute protuberances 

 called papilla. 



122. The style is often wanting, and the stigma is then sessile on the 

 ovary, but in the perfect pistil there is always at least one ovule in the ovary, 

 and some portion of stigmatic surface. Without these the pistil is imper- 

 fect, and said to be barren (not setting seed), abortive, or rudimentary (84), 

 according to the degree of imperfection. 



123. The ovary being the essential part of the pistil, most of the terms 

 relating to the number, arrangement, etc., of the carpels, apply specially to 

 their ovaries. In some works each separate carpel is called a pistil, all 

 those of a flower constituting together the gyneecium ; but this term is in 

 little use, and the word pistil is more generally applied in a collective sense. 

 When the ovaries are at all united, they are commonly termed collectively 

 a compound ovary. 



124. The number of carpels or ovaries in a flower is frequently reduced 

 below that of the parts of the other floral whorls, even in flowers otherwise 

 symmetrical. In a very few genera, however, the ovaries are more nume- 

 rous than the petals, or indefinite. They are in that case either arranged 

 in a single whorl, or form a head or spike in the centre of the flower. 



1 25. The terms monogynous, digynous, polygynous, etc. (with a pistil of 

 one, two, or more parts), are vaguely used, applying sometimes to the whole 

 pistil, sometimes to the ovaries alone, or to the styles or stigmas only. 

 Where a more precise nomenclature is adopted, the flower is 



monocarpellary, when the pistil consists of a single simple carpel. 



bi-, tri-, etc., to poly-carpellary, when the pistil consists of two, three, 

 or an indefinite number of carpels, whether separated or united. 



syncarpous, when the carpels or their ovaries are more or less united 

 into one compound ovary. 



apocarpous, when the carpels or ovaries are all free and distinct. 



126. A compound ovary is 



unilocular or one-celled, when there are no partitions between the 

 ovules, or when these partitions do not meet in the centre so as to divide 

 the cavity into several cells. 



plurilocular or several-celled, when completely divided into two or 

 more cells by partitions called dissepiments (septa), usually vertical and 

 radiating from the centre or axis of the ovary to its circumference. 



hi-, tri-, etc., to multi-locvlar, according to the number of these cells, 

 two, three, etc., or many. 



1 27. In general the number of cells or of dissepiments, complete or par- 

 tial, or of rows of ovules, corresponds with that of the carpels, of which the 

 pistil is composed. But sometimes each carpel is divided completely or 

 partially into two cells, or has two rows of ovules, so that the number of 

 carpels appears double what it really is. Sometimes again the carpels are 

 so completely combined and reduced as to form a single cell, with a single 

 ovule, although it really consists of several carpels. But in these cases the 

 ovary is usually described as it appears, as well as such as it is theoretically 

 supposed to be. 



128. In apocarpous pistils the styles are usually free, each bearing its 



