The President's Address. By Lord Avebury. 289 



especially those of dry regions, the seeds are extraordinarily 

 light. 



Araliace.^e. — Of this order we have only one species, the Ivy, 

 Hedera Helix. It is as a rule the last of our English species to 

 flower. The fruit is a black, 5-celled berry, with one seed in each 

 cell. These are somewhat irregular in form, convex on the back, 

 and wedge-shaped from being arranged round a centre, so that the 

 five together form a sphere. 



LokanthacE/E. — The fruit of this interesting plant is also a 

 berry, the Mistletoe (Viscum), and no doubt is intended for dis- 

 persal by birds. It is white, and contains a single seed imbedded 

 in a peculiarly glutinous pulp, which serves to make it adhere to 

 the bark of any branch on which it is deposited. For seeds which 

 rest on the ground such a provision would be unnecessary. 



CoRXACEyE. — The fruit of the Cornels is, in ordinary language, 

 a berry, but technically it is a drupe, i.e. a berry in which the 

 " pericarp " consists of two distinct layers, the outer one fleshy or 

 pulpy, the inner one dry and cartilaginous or woody. This layer 

 is, in Comus, very hard, and no doubt effectually protects the seeds 

 when the fruit is eaten. It is 2-celled, with one seed in each cell. 



The fruit of C. sanguinea is black, and thus conspicuous against 

 the leaves, which are a bright red in autumn. C. suecica has red 

 fruit. 



Caprifoliace^e. — The fruit is a berry, generally 1 -seeded, green 

 in Adoxa, but generally either red or black. The fruits are evi- 

 dently intended for dissemination by birds, and the actual seeds 

 are protected as usual in such cases by the hardness of the inner 

 coat or " endocarp." 



In the Honeysuckle the divisions of the cells soften or dis- 

 appear. 



Stellat.e. — Of this family, or sub-family, we have four genera. 



In Bubia the fruit is a small, black, 2-lobed berry. 



In the large genus Galium, G. Crucictta has almost succulent 

 fruits. In others, for instance G. boreale and G. Aparine (Cleavers), 

 the fruits are hooked. With the exception of G. boreale, which has 

 hooked bristles on the fruit, the perennial species are smooth, 

 while the annual species have reversed spines or hooks, if not on 

 the fruit, at any rate on the stems. I am inclined to suggest that 

 parts of the plant are torn off and carried away, the fruits, of course, 

 going with them. In G. tricomc the pedicels are turned back, and 

 thus form a hook. 



The rough fruits of Sherardiu are surmounted by the enlarged 

 calyx, which has spreading teeth. 



SolanacEtE. — The Solanacepe have two carpels, cohering into a 

 two-celled ovary. The fruit is technically a capsule, a berry either 

 dry or pulpy, or a " pyxidium," i.e. a box with transverse dehiscence, 

 as in the Pimpernel. 



June 17th, 1908 x 



