198 
ORGANOGRAPHY. 
BOOK 1. 
In the days of Linnaeus and Gaertner, and even in those of 
the celebrated L. C. Richard, nothing whatever was known 
of this matter, and consequently the writings of those car- 
pologists are a tissue of ingenious misconceptions. Nor did 
the subject become at all intelligible, notwithstanding the 
writings of Wolif, until the admirable treatise upon Vege- 
table Metamorphosis, which had been published by Goethe 
in 1790, but which had long been neglected, was again 
brought into notice, and illustrated by the skilful demon- 
strations of De Candolle, Turpin, Du Petit Thouars, and 
others. 
According to these writers, the pistil is either the modifi- 
cation of a single leaf 122.), or of one or more whorls of 
such leaves {jig> 121.), which are technically called carpels. 
Each carpel has its own ovary, style, and stigma, and is 
formed by a folded leaf, the upper surface of which is turned 
inwards, the lower outwards, and the two margins of which 
develope one or a greater number of buds, which are in a 
rudimentary state, and are called the ovules. 
A clear idea of the manner in which this occurs may be 
obtained from the carpel of a double cherry, in which the 
pistil loses its normal carpellary character, and reverts to the 
structure of the leaf. In this plant the pistil is a little con- 
tracted leaf, the sides of which are pressed face to face, the 
