DEHISCENT FRUITS 



75 



97. Origin of the Name. This kind of pod is the char- 

 acteristic fruit of the great pea, or pulse family, and gets 

 its name from the Latin word, lego, to pick, or gather, 

 because crops of pulse have always been picked by hand 

 instead of being cut or mown like grain and hay. 



98. Sutures. Place a legume upon one side and sketch 

 it, labeling the sutures. If you cannot tell which is the 

 dorsal and which the ventral, open the pod and observe 

 where the seeds are attached ; this is the ventral suture, 

 because in all normal carpels it is the united edges of the 

 leaf margins, or in other words, the ventral suture, that 

 forms the seed-bearing surface, or placenta. 



99. Valves. Sketch the open pod with the seeds in 

 it, showing their point of attachment. Label this the//#- 

 centa, and the two halves into which the pod has split, 

 valves. Notice that the valves are not separate carpels, 



but only two halves of the same carpel. 

 What is the difference between a legume 

 and an ordinary follicle ? 



157. Legume of a pea, with 

 partially constricted pod. 



158. Loment of beggar's 

 ticks. 



i S 6.-Constric,ed 100 ' The Loment, so unpleasantly famil- 

 legume of cassia iar to most of us in the beggar's ticks tribe, 

 is merely a kind of legume constricted 

 between the seeds and breaking up into separate joints 

 at maturity. What kind of indehiscent fruits do the joints 

 resemble when separated ? 



101. The Silique is the characteristic fruit of the mus- 

 tard family, as the legume is of the pea tribe, though it is 



