1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pistil

PISTIL, a term in botany for the female or seed-bearing organ of a flower (q.v.). The Lat. pistillum (diminutive from pinsere, pistum, to pound), a pestle, a club-headed instrument used for crushing or braying substances in a mortar (q.v.), was taken as the name for this organ from its similarity in shape, and thence adapted in Fr. pistil about the middle of the 18th century. In its complete form a pistil consists of three parts ovary, at the base, containing the bodies which become seeds, style (Gr. στῦλος, pillar), and stigma (Gr. στίγμα, mark, στίζειν, to brand), the part which in impregnation receives the pollen.