acing each other in the centre of the
flower; when several, they commonly form a ring or circle; and when very
numerous, they are generally crowded in rows or spirals on the surface
of a more or less enlarged or elongated receptacle. Their number gives
rise to certain terms, the counterpart of those used for stamens (284),
which are survivals of the names of orders in the Linnaean artificial
system. The names were coined by prefixing Greek numerals to _-gynia_
used for gynoecium, and changed into adjectives in the form of
_-gynous_. That is, a flower is

_Monogynous_, when it has a single pistil, whether that be simple or
compound;

_Digynous_, when it has only two pistils; _Trigynous_, when with three;
_Tetragynous_, with four; _Pentagynous_, with five; _Hexagynous_, with
six; and so on to _Polygynous_, with many pistils.

302. =The Parts of a Complete Pistil=, as already twice explained (16,
236), are the OVARY, the STYLE, and the STIGMA. The ovary is one
essential part: it contains the rudiments of seeds, called OVULES. The
stigma at the summit is also essential: it receives the pollen, which
fertilizes the ovules in order that they may become seeds. But the
style, commonly a tapering or slender column borne on the summit of the
ovary, and bearing the stigma on its apex or its side, is no more
necessary to a pistil than the filament is to the stamen. Accordingly,
there is no style in many pistils: in these the stigma is _sessile_,
that is, rests directly on the ovary (as in Fig. 326). The stigma is
very various in shape and appearance, being sometimes a little knob (as
in the Cherry, Fig. 271), sometimes a point or small surface of bare
tissue (as in Fig. 327-330), and sometimes a longitudinal crest or line
(as in Fig. 324, 341-343), or it may occupy the whole length of the
style, as in Fig. 331.

303. The word Pistil (Latin, _Pistillum_) means a pestle. It came into
use in the first place for such flowers as those of Crown Imperial, or
Lily, in which the pistil in the centre was likened to the pestle, and
the perianth around it to the mortar, of the apothecary.

304. A pistil is either _simple_ or _compound_. It is simple when it
answers to a single flower-leaf, compound when it answers to two or
three, or a fuller circle of such leaves conjoined.

305. =Carpels.= It is convenient to have a name for each flower-leaf of
the gynoecium; so it is called a _Carpel_, in Latin _Carpellum_ or
_Carpidium_. A simple pi