ANGIOSPERMS. 6 1 5 



of certain plates of tissue in the fully ripe fruit (as in Umbelliferae and Jeer), then termed 

 a Cremocarp, where the fruit breaks up into two one-seeded halves or mericarps by the 

 splitting of the dissepiment or ' carpophore ' along its length. The quinquilocular fruit 

 of Geranium splits up in the same manner into five one-seeded mericarps. 



True single fruits are in general unilocular or multilocular, according as the ovary 

 was divided or not. But the unilocular ovary may produce a multilocular fruit by 

 spurious dissepiments, i. e. such as cannot be considered as the reflexed margins of the 

 carpels ; and the loculi of such a fruit may lie either one above another or side by side. 

 The compartments, for example, of the legume (lomentum) of some Papilionaceae and 

 of Cassia fistula lie one over another, while the two spurious loculi of the legume of 

 Astragalus lie side by side. A multilocular ovary may, n)ice 'versa, produce a unilocular 

 fruit by the suppression of one or more loculi, as in the Oak and Lime. A classification 

 of fruits into monocarpellary and polycarpellary cannot therefore be carried out as it 

 can be in ovaries ; the terms having now a different application. 



The wall of the ovary becomes the wall of the fruit or Pericarp, If sufficiently thick, 

 it can generally be divided into two or three layers, the tissue of which is developed 

 differently ; the outer one, often nothing but the epidermis, is then called the Epicarp, 

 and the inner one the Endocarp. If another one lies between these, it is called the 

 Mesocarp, or when it possesses a fleshy character, the Sarcocarp. 



Using the nomenclature which has now been described, we may classify all true 

 fruits into two principal sections, and each of these again into subdivisions, according to 

 whether the pericarp consists, when the fruit is ripe, of succulent fleshy layers or not, 

 and whether the fruit dehisces in order to allow the escape of the seeds which become 

 detached from the placentae, or not ; viz. 



A. Dry Fruits. Pericarp woody or tough and leathery, the cell-sap having 

 disappeared from its cells. 



a. Dry Indehiscent Fruits. The pericarp does not split open, but encloses the 



seed till germination; the testa is thin and membranous, and but little 

 developed. 



(o) One-seeded dry indehiscent fruits. 



1. The Nut or Glans : the dry pericarp is thick and hard, and consists of 



lignified sclerenchymatous tissue; ^.^. the Hazel-nut. 



2. The Caryopsis or Achenium: the dry pericarp is thin, tough, and 



leathery, in close contact with the seed, and separable or not from 

 the testa; as the fruit of Gompositae, Grasses, the Sweet-Chestnut. 



(/3) Bi- or multilocular dry indehiscent fruits. 



3. These are mostly Schi%ocarps splitting up into Mericarps, each of 



which resembles a nut or achenium; e.g. Umbelliferae, Geraniaceae. 

 When the mericarp is winged, as in Acer, it is called a Samara. 



b. Dry Dehiscent Fruits or Capsules in the more general sense. When the 



fruit is perfectly ripe, the pericarp bursts or splits to allow the escape of the 

 seeds, which are themselves clothed with a strongly developed usually hard or 

 tough testa. They generally contain more than one seed. 



(a) Capsules with longitudinal dehiscence : — 



4. The Follicle consists of a single carpel which splits along the ventral 



suture or coherent margins of the carpels which bear the seeds ; as 

 in Pceonia, Aquilegia, and IlUcium anisatum ; in Asclepias the thick 

 , placenta also becomes detached. 



5. The Legume consists also of a single carpel, which however splits not 



only along the ventral but also along the dorsal suture, and thus 

 separates into two halves; Phaseolus, Pisum. 



