Bot. [mod.L. (Swartz, 1807), f. Gr. στῦλ-ος column + -ίδιον dim. suffix (here used loosely).] A genus of gamopetalous plants, native in Australia, India, and Ceylon, remarkable for the irritability of the column formed by the union of the stamens and style.
The genus had been named Candollea by Labillardière in 1805; this older name has been recently revived in accordance with the rule that the earliest botanical name given to a genus should be preserved. Hence the N. O. of which the genus is the type is now often called Candolleaceæ for the earlier Stylidiaceæ or Stylidieæ.
1829. T. Castle, Introd. Bot., 154. A New Holland genus named stylidium.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 340. The shrinking of the Mimosa, the collapsing of Dionæa, and the elastic spring of Stylidium [may be due to galvanism].
1878. Darwin, Life & Lett., III. 287. As far as I know, Stylidium is the sole case of sensitive pistil.
1880. Bessey, Bot., 512. Species of Stylidium are grown in conservatories.
