1 80 Plants and their Ways in South Africa 



shine. Do the fruits? Place some ripe fruits in a glass of 

 water. In a few minutes the roofs of the 

 chambers will lift up and expose the seeds. 

 Remove the fruits and watch them close as they 

 dry. Try the same experiment with the fruits 

 of Wahlenbergia. Do the fruits act in the same 

 way? Mesembrianthemitm thrives in the sun 

 and the sand ; but the seeds are kept within 

 the closed fruit until the rain comes, when they 

 are released to germinate. 



The Apricot, Grape, Date, and Water-melon 

 are fleshy or succulent fruits. Since succulent 

 fruits are formed in different ways, different 

 names are given them. In these fruits the 

 three parts of w r hich the wall of the ovary is 

 made is more easily distinguished than in dry 

 ones. In the Apricot the outer wall, or epicarp, is the downy 

 skin. The juicy middle layer is the mesocarp, and the inner 



FIG. 177. Cap- 

 sule or pyxis of 

 A nag a His, 

 with circum- 

 scissile dehisc- 

 ence. (From 

 T h o m 6 and 

 Bennett's 

 "Structural 

 and Physio- 

 logical Bo- 

 tany".) 



FIG. 178. The fruit of Mesembrianihemum dehisces by triangular valves. 

 (From Henslow's " South African Flowering Plants".) 



layer, or endocarp, is the hard stone or pit which contains 

 the seed. Such a fruit is a drupe. An Almond is formed 



