ITS KINDS. 



293 



which that order presents. Some of these, in fact, are in- 

 dehiscent and reduced to akenes ; some break up at maturity 

 into one-seeded indehiscent articulations or joints, which are 

 dispersed as if they were so many seeds. A legume of the latter 

 kind takes the special name of LOMENT, Lat. Lomentum. (Fig. 

 620.) In Mimosa (Sensitive-plant, &c.), such articulations de- 

 hisce into two valves. They also fall away from the sutures, 

 or from a persistent marginal border of them, or in some cases 

 the valves thus fall away entire. The persistent frame which 

 remains has been called a REPLUM, an architectural word, here 

 taken in the sense of door-case. 



559. A Capsule is the pod, or dehiscent fruit, of any compound 

 pistil. When regularly and com- 

 pletely dehiscent, as already stated 



(544), the pod splits lengthwise into 

 pieces or valces. The modes of regular 

 dehiscence are illus- 

 trated in Fig. 612- 

 617. Two modifica- 

 tions of the capsule 

 have received distinc- 

 tive names which are 

 in common use, viz. 

 the Pyxis and the 

 Silfquc. 



560. A Pyxis or Pyxidium is a dry fruit which opens by a 

 circular line, cutting off the upper part as a lid ; *. e., the dehiscence 

 is circumscissile. (553, Fig. 621.) In the Purslane, 



Pimpernel, Henbane, and Plantain, the pyxis is 

 a capsule ; in Amaranths (Fig. 637) it is a 

 utricle ; in Jeffersonia (Fig. 622) it is a modi- 

 fication of the follicle, being of one carpel which 

 dehisces transversely, and not all round, so that 

 the lid remains attached. 6 - 4 



561. A Silique is a narrow two-valved capsule, with two pari- 

 etal placentae, from which the valves separate in dehiscence ; as 

 in plants of the Cruciferous or Mustard family (Fig. 623), 

 to the fruit of which this term is restricted. Usually, a false 

 partition is stretched across between the two placentae, render- 



FIG. 621. Pyxis of Purslane, Portulaca oleracea, the top separating entirely and 

 falling away. 



FIG. 622. Pyxis-like follicular fruit of Jeffersonia diphylla; the lid remaining 

 attached dorsally. 



FIG. 623. SiiiqueofCardamine in dehiscence. 624. Silicleof Capsellaor Shepherd's- 

 Purse, lateral view, and an oblique view of the same with one valve removed. 



