REGMA—SILIQUA—SILICULA. 317 
various forms, some of which are remarkable, as in Helicteres 
(fig. 708), where it is composed of five carpels twisted spirally 
together, and Liliciwm anisatwm, where the carpels are arranged 
in a stellate manner. The capsule is a very common fruit, and 
is found almost universally in many natural orders, as Papaver- 
acez, Caryophyllace, Primulacez, Scrophulariaceze, Liliaceze, 
Gentianacee, &c., &e. 
When a capsule consists of three or more carpels, which 
separate from the axis, and burst with elasticity (cocci) (page 
304), asin Ricinus (fig. 675) and Hura crepitans (fig. 711), it has 
been termed a Regma. 
When a fruit resembles the ordinary capsule in every respect, 
except that it is inferior, as in the species of Iris (fig. 712) and 
Campanula (figs. 687 and 688), it has received the name of 
Diplotegia. (See Diplotegia, page 
319.) In the natural orders we = Fic. 713. Fic. 714. 
shall describe such a fruit as cap- 
sular. 
2. The Siliqua is a superior, one- 
or two-celled, many-seeded, long, 
narrow fruit, dehiscing by two valves 
separating from below upwards, and 
leaving the seeds attached to two 
parietal placentas, which are com- 
monly connected together by a 
spurious vertical dissepiment, called 
areplum (fig. 713). The placentas 
are here opposite to the lobes of the 
stigma, instead of alternate, as is the 
case in all fruits which are regular 
in structure. When the replum 
extends entirely across the cavity, 
the fruit is two-celled ; if only par- 
tially, it is one-celled. Examples of 
this fruit occur in the Wallflower (jig. 
713), Stock, Cabbage, and a large 
number of other Cruciferee. When afruit possesses the general 
characters of the siliqua, but with the lobes of the stigma alter- 
nate to instead of opposite the placentas, as in Chelidoniwm (fig. 
683), it has been named a Ceratiwm or a siliqueform capsule. 
The siliqua is sometimes contracted in the spaces between 
each seed, like the lomentum (page 311), in which case it is 
indehiscent, as in Raphanus sativus, and is then called a 
lomentaceous siliqua. 
.3. The Silicula.—This fruit resembles the siliqua in every 
respect except as to its length ; and in usually containing fewer 
seeds. Thus the siliqgwa may be described as long and narrow, 
the silicula as broad and short. Examples occur in the Shep- 
herd’s Purse (fig. 714) and Scurvy-grass. 
Fig. 713. Fruit or 
siliqua of the 
Wallflower show- 
ing the separa- 
tion of the two 
valves from the 
replum. —— Fig. 
714. Silicula of 
Shepherd’s Purse 
(Thlaspt). 
