Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/303

 Rh, or when the plant increases much by root, as in the Fiery Lily, or true Lilium bulbiferum.

4. The Pistils, no less essential than the Stamens, stand within them in the centre of the flower, and are generally fewer. When in a different flower, on the same or a different plant, that are not always central. Linnæus conceived them to originate from the pith, and the stamens from the wood, and hence constructed an ingenious hypothesis, relative to the propagation of vegetables, which is not destitute of observations and analogies to support it, but no countenanced by the anatomy and physiology of the parts alluded to.

Each Pistil consists of three parts. 1, the Germen, or rudiment of the young fruit or seed, which of course is essential; 2, the Stylus, style, various in length and thickness, sometimes altogether wanting, and when present serving merely to elevate the third part, Stigma. This last is indispensable. Its shape is various, either