The President's Address. By Lord Avebury. 281 



is jerked by the wind, or perhaps by some passing animal, the 

 seeds are jerked out. 



In other cases they are, no doubt, carried by birds. The 

 pointed tubercles of Lychnis Flos-cuculi perhaps serve for this 

 purpose. The largest seeds of any British species are those of 

 Lychnis Githago. It is an annual species. On the other hand, 

 Stcllaria Holostea and Arenaria peploides, in which the seeds are 

 nearly as large, are both perennials. 



Cistine.e. — The Cistinere also are represented in our flora by a 

 single genus — Helianthemum, the Bock-rose. The fruit is a capsule, 

 1-celled, or incompletely divided into several, and opening by 

 3, 5, or 10 valves. The seeds are smooth. 



PoRTULACEiE. — Of this order we have only one really native 

 species, Montia fontanel, and one naturalised, Clay tonia per foliata. 

 Of the latter I will only observe that it is another case in which 

 seeds in capsules are black and glossy. The seeds of Montia are 

 probably carried about by aquatic birds. 



Hypericine^e. — The fruit is a capsule, or in some foreign 

 species a berry. Hypericum Androscemum forms a connecting 

 link between the two, as the capsule is succulent and as a rule 

 does not open. In the other species, or most of them, the capsule 

 opens at the summit, and the seeds are scattered by the wind. 



In H.perforatum, H. hirsutum and some others, in fact in our 

 British species generally, the seeds are sausage-shaped and pointed 

 at each end. The seeds appear to be often sterile. Some of the 

 exotic genera have winged seeds. 



Malvaceae. — The fruit in the Mallows is formed on a very 



different plan from any of those which 



we have hitherto been considering. It 



is indeed in rare cases a berry, but 



generally, and in all our British species, 



it consists of many carpels arranged in 



a circle round a central axis. The seeds 



are sometimes several, but in British 



species one, in each carpel, to which it 



conforms. The surface is often rugose, 



but so finely as to be practically smooth, 



brown or black. -c ,- n , f , r , 



mi . . , Fig. 72 . — Carpel of Malva 



Ine carpels are in some species gla- moschata. 



brous : this is the case in M. sylvestris, 



which, however, has a variety, var. lasiocarpa, with hairy carpels. 

 In M. rotundifolia they are downy, and in M. moschata hairy. 



The hairs of course render the capsules lighter, and would thus 

 promote dispersal by the wind. In Althcea the carpels are flattened 

 and winged, which would promote the same object. It is im- 

 possible, however, not to be struck by the singular resemblance 

 the capsules present to small green or brown caterpillars, curled up 



