230 Dr HAMILTON on the Structure of the Fruit 



only softer, and more gelatinous, especially towards the seeds, 

 which it every where surrounds. In general, the septa entirely 

 disappear before the fruit ripens, as in Fig. 3. representing a sec- 

 tion of the picinna in a half ripe state, or at least the septa can- 

 not be readily traced among the thick substance by which they 

 are surrounded, and which originally proceeded from them. 



This soft substance consists sometimes of fibres intermixed 

 with juice, and more or less spongy, which, when the fruit ripens, 

 sometimes becomes either a corky mass, in which the seeds nestle, 

 as in the Cucurbita leucanthema, or a dry fibrous texture, leaving 

 a longitudinal cavity, in which the seeds are disposed loose, their 

 umbilical cords having disappeared, as in Luffa (Fig. 5.). At 

 other times, again, the fibrous pulp, as it ripens, undergoes less 

 change, only it becomes more succulent, as in the Cucurbita Pepo, 

 or more fibrous, as in the Cucumis Colocynthis. Instead of fibres, 

 again, this soft substance is sometimes divided by membranes 

 proceeding transversely from the septa, so as to form vertical 

 cells, separating from each other the seeds, which appear in the 

 transverse section, and which lie surrounded by a gelatinous fluid 

 contained within the cells, as in Fig. 1. or as better represented 

 by GARTNER (t. 33.) in his figure of the Cucumis sativus. Fi- 

 nally, this soft fibrous or membranous substance entirely sepa- 

 rates from the septa, and a portion of it forms an arillus to cover 

 each seed, as in several species of Trichosanthes, and as repre- 

 sented by GARTNER in the figure of the Momordica Balsamina 

 and Bryonia laciniosa (t. 38.) 



The fruit has three receptacula, to which the young seeds ad- 

 here generally by short umbilical cords, as in the Melon and Cu- 

 cumber ; but they are sometimes sessile, as in a singular kind of 

 Trichosanthes, called Theba by the Bengalese, the receptacula of 

 which, so long as discernible, envelope with their fleshy reflected 

 edges the single ovum which each edge nourishes, as in the sec- 

 tion (Fig. 4.) of its enlarged germen. 



