THE FLOWER. 151 
besides, externally, by the filaments of the stamens, which form a 
rampart round it. These various floral envelopes last as long as 
the pistil needs their protection and shelter. They disappear after 
fecundation, when the ovary is strengthened by its own proper 
development. 
The pistil is the female organ in vegetables, the gyne@cium, as it 
is sometimes called, as opposed to the androceum, the name which 
designates the whole of the stamens, or the male organ. 
The zecium presents one of the most remarkable applications 
of the doctrine of vegetable metamorphosis, made popular by Goéthe, 
the celebrated German poet, and also a profound naturalist. We 
can easily understand the structure, origin, and arrangement 
of the gynecium, if we consider it as constituted by the trans- 
formation of a single leaf, or rather as resulting from the union, 
blending, and combination of several leaves in one single organ. 
The elementary organs, the junction of which forms the pistil, 
are called by De Candolle, carpels. The carpel is to the pistil 
what the sepal is to the calyx, the petal to the corolla, and the 
stamens to the androceum. The union of the carpels generally 
forms the pistil, as the union of the petals form the corolla, and 
the union of the stamens the androceeum. Sepals, 
petals, and stamens, are only modified leaves ; it is 
just the same with the carpel, which takes its rise 
during the phases of ia remit by the metamor- 
phosis of the leaves. 
Three parts are observable in the pistil—the ovary, 
the style, and the stigma. These three parts are 
very apparent in Fig. 213, representing the pistil of 
the Chinese Primrose, where the letters stig. indicate 
the stigma, the letters sty., the style, by the letter 0, 
the ovary. 
The ovary is the part of the vegetable destined 
to contain the seed, that is, the ovules, which, when 
fertilised and developed, become the seeds. The 
part which supports the ovules, which is generally 
rather thick, is called the placenta; it is indicated ¥is,2!3;Pistiot 
in Fig. 213 by the letter Pp, above the receptacle 7. 
The top of the ovary is prolonged by a filament, either long or 
