STIGMA AND PARIETAL PLACENTiE IN PLANTS. 563 



ever, is not to be understood the union or cohesion of parts 

 originally distinct, for in the great majority of cases the 

 separation or complete development of these parts from the 

 original cellular and pulpy state has never taken place. But 

 with this explanation the word may still be retained, unless 

 connate should be considered less exceptionable. 



I have also assumed that ovula belong to the transformed 

 leaf or carpel, and are not derived from processes of the 

 axis united with it, as several eminent botanists have lately 

 supposed. That the placentae and ovula really belong to the 

 carpel alone is at least manifest in all cases where stamhia 

 are changed into pistilla. To such monstrosities I have long 

 since referred in my earliest observations on the type of 

 the female organ in phsenogamous plants,^ and since more 

 particularly in my paper on Hqfflesia -^ the most remark- 

 able instances alluded to in illustration of this point being 

 SemperDivum tectorum, Salix oleifolia, and Cochlearia armo- 

 racia, in all of which every gradation between the perfect 

 state of the anthera and its transformation into a complete 

 pistillum is occasionally found. 



1 In Linn. Soc. Trans., vol. xii, p. 89. 



' Ibid. vol. xiii, p. 212, note. {Ante, p. 379.) 



