232 F. 3. Brown 



(To be continued.) 



Ivies embryo nthenun and sone nevj genere separated froxa it. 

 Gard. Chron. HI. 78*. 272. 192.5. 

 (Continued from pege 232.) 



272 Hitherto, v^hen describing new species of iiesembryanthemum 



it hes not been deemed necesssry to describe in detail the struc- 

 ture of the fla'-er, and that of the fruit is never described, -l-n 

 niture, hov/ever, such details should be given, as it is often im- 

 possible to r>lece some species in their" correct affinity v/ithout 

 knovrl^dp-e of these details. ?or v/ant of them there are some spec- 

 ies described by Linne and many by later authors that I am at 

 present ouite unable to assign to any definite genus, because I 

 have no material for the -^----ose, fruit especially being absent. 



5'i^. 109. ^ry capsules of I'-esembrvanthemuro.i (a) i". -ieathii; 

 (B) i:. pilosulum: "(G) I:. Sh^ndii- (2) i-^ longum-(?); (S) i.:. 

 pomeridianum; (?! '-. soecies; (G) a new srecies of the -Sphaeroid 

 -rour; and (H) M. srecies plli-d to l"^. Hgathii. An natural size. 



?ig. 110.- The sp.me or:' ''"s -s in ^Ip;. 109 \"?hen expanded by 



wettinn-; ^ptur?l size. 



I have been more end more surprised durinr my examinr: tion 

 of the^e i^lants thet for more than & century and a half no one 

 appears to have studied the structure of their fruit, and consider- 

 ing that these fruits r-re the most comr^licated in the '^'^egeteble 

 I'^incrdom, this is a rather remprksble circumstance. In every other 

 natural Order the fruit is used for distinguishing genera, and it 

 cannot be any longer ignored end treated as if of no generic impor- 

 tpnce in this group of nlents. To see and be able to properly 



— — -^^o fruit of these plants' it is necessary to soak them in 



fevj minutes to cause them to ex'^fnd the valves, for 

 unless they are expanded their structure 



cannot be seen. I have given an account o:. „-..^ -_ .. Truits 



in the third article upon these plants in The Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 l?"?!, ". Ixx., p. 151, but here reproduce the figures of some dry 

 (^i/?. 109) and also expended capsules (^^Ag. 110 ) to make my mean- 

 ing clearer. 'Then a fruit is placed in v/ater or vetted by rain, 

 the tissures absorb some of the w^ter and it gets conducted to the 

 expp.ndin" keels (Fig. 110 I>, a) that extend along the valves. 

 These are very hyrroraetric and swell rapidly, and the lov;er part 

 o:" the valves also must s^'.-ell to some extent, and thus the valves 

 five -forced or-en and spre<^d out flat or reflex. Sometimes, as 

 ''hovm at "^ig. 110 H, the expanding keels develor broad-margined 

 v/inp-s, vrhich, in the closed capsule, ' re folded imvsrds, but as 

 the valves or>en these also absorb water and expand and s^^-^^-^ ^ out 

 ■flatlv as shown in the figure. In many other cases, the 'nrl 



wind's pre converted into infolded or erect ^Ir-rs, an example of 

 vrbic'-^, is sonevhat indistinctly shown at ^ig. no F. These flaps 

 on;!''- occur in those genera thp t have axile plecentation, and it 

 wouV seem that in the closed fruit they more or less envelop 

 ■f-v, o o^^-i„ ^„^ ,• „ -^.he P. c ■"■ ^'^ -,-». — r~A r-y^ serve tlie ^-^i^'^i'^ose of 



