xxxu 
INTRODUCTION. 
in ripening become membranaceous, coriaceous, or crustaceous, forming a 
dry fruit $ such as a pod, when it splits, or otherwise opens at malurity, 
and a nut , achenium, &.c., when it does not. Sometimes the outer layer of 
the pericarp enlarges and softens, while the inner hardens like a nut, when 
a drupe or stone-fruit is the result, such as the plum and peach. 
183. Besides the changes in size, form, and texture to which the ovary is 
subject as it matures into the pericarp, it is'also liable to some changes 
from the abortion or obliteration of parts. Thus, the ovary of the Oak and 
Beech has 3 cells and 2 ovules in each $ while the acorn and beech nut are 
only one-celled and one-seeded ; five ovules and two of the cells being ob¬ 
literated during the growth of the fruit. The same thing occurs in the 
Horsechestnut, but in a less degree, since 2 or 3 seeds often ripen, and 
the abortive ones, or traces of them, as well as of the original partitions, 
may always be found in the ripe fruit. 
184. On the other hand, the cells are sometimes multiplied in fruiting, 
as in the Stramonium (p. 353), where a 2-celled ovary becomes 4-celled by 
a false partition, and in Desmodium (p. 98) and such like pods, in which a 
set of cross divisions is formed. 
185. Of simple fruits (produced by a single flower), the following are the 
principal kinds. 
186. A Follicle is a pod (183) formed of a single carpel which opens 
at maturity along the ventral suture; as in the Larkspur and Columbine 
(p. 13). 
187. A Legume, the proper pod of the Pulse Family (p. 90), differs from 
the follicle in opening by both sutures, thus splitting into 2 pieces, or 
valves, each of which is half a carpel. The name is given, in practice, to 
every form of the fruit of the Pulse Family, whether opening by valves or 
not. A pod of the sort which is divided transversely into several joints (in 
the mode mentioned at the close of paragr. 184) is called a Loment, or a 
lomentaceous pod. 
188. A Capsule is the general name for any sort of pod formed of a 
compound ovary (163), especially when opening by regular valves; or, in 
other words, is dehiscent. 
189. Regular dehiscence takes place by the opening through one or 
both sutures (164), and often also by the disjunction of carpels that have 
been united. 
190. When a capsule splits through the partitions, the dehiscence is 
septicidal. This separates it into its constituent carpels, which then usually 
open by the ventral suture at their inner angle for the discharge of the 
seeds. The separable carpels, or the lobes of a pod, the carpels of which 
are united at the centre only, are sometimes called Cocci, and the pod, 
dicoccous, tricoccous, &c., to express the number of carpels. 
191. When the dehiscence of a capsule occurs by the dorsal suture of 
each carpel, thus opening directly into the back of each cell, it is said to be 
loculicidal. The partitions, remaining intact, are borne each on the middle 
of a valve ; while in the septicidal mode the half-partitions remain attached 
to the margins of the valves. 
192. The 1-celled capsule with parietal placentae may dehisce either 
loculicidally through the dorsal sutures, when the placentae will occupy the 
middle of the valves, or by the disjunction of the united margins of the 
carpels, when each valve will answer to an entire carpel, and bear the half¬ 
placentae and seeds on both margins. 
193. Sometimes the valves fall away from the partitions, leaving them ad¬ 
herent in the centre, as in the Morning-Glory (p. 349), —a modification ot 
either of the tw f o preceding modes, which is termed septifragal. 
194. Not unlike this is the case where the valves separate from the pa* 
