-,o8 



FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



sufficient to afford some explanation of the pheno- 

 menon first alluded to. Sir James Smith says, in allu- 

 sion to the Egyptian bean {Nelunibium speciosinn), " in 

 process of time the receptacle separates from the stalk, 

 and, laden with ripe oval nuts, floats down the water. 

 The nuts vegetating, it becomes a cornucopoeia of 



young sprouting 

 plants, which at 

 length break loose 

 from their confine- 

 ment and take root 

 in the mud." 



The most remark- 

 able of tropical 

 fruits, in their struc- 

 tural aspect, are 

 some of the myrtle 

 family, the seeds of 

 which are enclosed 

 in a large woody 

 urn, or capsule, like 

 a drinking-vessel with a movable lid. In some of 

 them the fruit is no larger than a small walnut, 

 in others as large as a man's head.^ In some the 

 form is elegant and urn-like, in others it resembles 



Tig. 63. — Receptacle of the Egyptian 

 Bean {NcluinbiuDi speciosuin). 



» See descriptions and figures of a large number of species in 

 "Transactions of the Linna:an Society," vol. xxx., p. 157, &c. 



