PISTIL, in botany, the female organ of fructification in phanerogamous plants; that part of the flower (q.v.) which, after flowering is over, is developed into the fruit. There is sometimes one pistil in a flower, sometimes more ; in some flowers, which have numerous pistils, they form a number of whorls, one within another, sometimes on an elevated tacle or elongated axis, or more rarely, t hey are spirally arranged. In every case the center of the flower is occupied by the pistil or pistils, if present. See ER. A pistil is either formed of a single carpel (q.v.), as is the case when there are numerous pistils, or of several carpels bined; and the number of pels of which the pistil is formed is often indicated by the ber of the cells of the gcrmen, or by its lobes or angles. The pistil usually consists of a germen (q.v.) or ovary, in which the ovules (q.v.) are contained, and which is surmounted by a stigma, either immediately or through the intervention of a sty/4; but in gymnogens (q.v.) there is neither germen, style, nor stigma, the female organs of tion being mere naked ovules. The germen is always the lowest part of the pistil. The stigma exhibits an endless variety of forms, and is adapted to the reception and retention of the pollen grains requisite for fecundation, partly by the roughness of its surface—which is, of a somewhat lax cellular tissue, covered with pro jetting cells, often in the form of minute warts, and often elongated into hairs—and partly by the secretion of a viscous fluid. The stigma, when not sessile—or seated immediately on the get-men—is supported by the style, which rises from the germen, and on the top of which the stigma is generally placed. The style is sometimes very long and slender, sometimes very short; the germen sometimes passes imperceptibly into the style, and sometimes the style rises from it abruptly; and similar difference's appear in the relations of the style and stigma; the stigma, however, may be regarded as always an expansion of the top of the style, although it is sometimes, but rarely, situ ;,ted on one or both sides of the style, beneath its summit. In like manner, by peculiar
modifications taking place in the growth of the genneu, the style sometimes seems to rise from beneath its apex, or even from its base; but it always rises from what is. structurally considered, the real apex of the germen. When several carpels are united to form one germen, they are sometimes again separated in their styles, and more fre quently in their stigmas, so that one germen bears several styles, or the style divides at some point above the germen, or one style is crowned by a number of stigmas. The style is usually cylindrical; and when this is not the•case it is often owing to the com bination of several styles into one, although sometimes the style is flat and even petal like. It is traversed throughout its whole length by a canal; which, however, is in gen eral filled up by cells projecting from its sides, and often also by very slender tubes extending in the direction of its length; the function of the canal, to which in some way or other the inclosed slender tubes are subservient, being to bring about the connection between the pollen and the ovules for fecundation (q.v.). The length of the style is adapted to the ready fecundation of the ovules, being such that the pollen may most easily reach the stigma; and in erect flowers the styles are usually shorter than the stamens; in drooping flowers they are longer than the stamens. After flowering is over, when fecundation has taken place, the /mown of the ovules closes, the germen enlarges and ripens into the fruit. whilst each ovule is developed into a seed. The style and stigma meanwhile either fall off, or remain and dry up, or they increase in size, and are changed into various kinds of appendages of the fruit, as feathery awns• beaks, etc.