162 
ORGANOGRAPHY. 
BOOK I. 
it is a fleshy solid body, interposed between the top of the 
ovary and the base of the style ; and has given rise, when 
much enlarged, to the unfounded belief in the existence of 
a superior ovary in that order, as in Tarchonanthus. In Um- 
belliferae it is dilated and covers the whdle summit of the 
ovary, adhering firmly to the base of the styles ; by Hoffiuan 
it is then called stylopodium^ a word which is seldom used. 
It is an opinion that daily gains ground, that the disk is 
really only a rudimentary state of the stamens ; and it is 
thought that proofs of the correctness of this hypothesis are 
to be found in the frequent separation of the cyathiform disk 
into bodies alternating with the true stamens, as in Gesneria ; 
in its resemblance in Parnassia to bundles of polyadelphous 
stamens; and particularly in the fact noticed by Brown, 
that an anther is occasionally produced upon the highly 
developed disk of Paeonia Moutan. To which may be added 
the observation of Dunal, that half the disk of Cistus vagi- 
natus occasionally turns into stamens. {Considerations, &c. 
p. 44.) 
Like the petals, sepals, and stamens, the disk always ori- 
ginates from below the pistil ; but it often contracts an 
adhesion with the sides of the calyx, when it becomes perigy- 
nous, as in Amygdalus ; or with both the calyx and the sides of 
an inferior ovary, when it becomes epigynous, as in umbel- 
liferous plants. 
10. Of the Pistil. 
The last organ to enumerate in the flower is that which 
constitutes the female system, or gynceceum of Roper, and 
which is usually called the pistil. In all cases it occupies the 
centre of the flower, terminating the axis of growth of the 
peduncle ; and is consequently the part around which every 
other organ, without exception, is arranged. 
It is distinguished into three parts ; viz. the ovary 
(Plate V. fig. 7. «), the style (fig. l.f), and the stigma (fig. 
The ovary, called germen by Linnaeus, is a hollow case 
placed at the base of the pistil, enclosing the ovules, and often 
containing two or more cells or cavities. It is the part which 
