THE PROMISE OF THE PLANT THAT IS TO BE 



477 



FIG. 586. IRIS. 



Transverse section of capsule, illustrating 

 looulicidal dehiscence. 



afterwards I saw a second, third, fourth, and 

 ultimately about fifty seeds let fly from the 

 small clusters of fruit, and each time I heard 

 .a peculiar sound which accompanied the 

 bursting open of the fruits and ejection of 

 the seeds. The rays of sunshine from the 

 window had evidently heated and dried the 

 fruits, and occasioned this .surprising phe- 

 nomenon." The poet Goethe gives a some- 

 what similar account of the seed dispersion 

 of Acanthus tnollis and methods closely re- 

 sembling these have been observed in many 

 other plants. Plants with sling-fruits form, 

 in fact, a large group. 



A very curious form of capsule is the 

 pyxis, in which the splitting takes place 

 transversely, and the top of the capsule falls 

 completely off. The fruits of Anagallis, the 

 Pimpernel family (fig. 589), all have this mode 

 of dehiscence ; but more striking examples 

 are furnished by the less known tropical genus, Lecythis, about which many 

 a quaint story is told. Lecythos means an oil-jar, and the popular name 

 for these fruits is " monkey-pots." " The great urn-shaped fruits," writes 

 Charles Kingsley, " big enough to serve for drinking-vessels. each kindly 

 provided with a round wooden cover, which 

 becomes loose, and lets out the savoury 

 sapucaia nuts inside, to the comfort of all our 

 * poor relations.' The pots are used for catch- 

 ing monkeys." "Filled with sugar," says a 

 writer in the Gardener's Chronicle (1861), 

 "they are placed on the ground which such 

 animals frequent. The sugar attracts the 

 latter, who pick it out leisurely till they are 

 disturbed, when they insert the paw, grasp 

 as much sugar as it will hold, and endeavour 

 to escape with the prize. But their doubled 

 fist, being larger than the mouth of the pot, 

 cannot be withdrawn, and the monkeys, 

 tenaciously holding the sugar, run off' with 

 a pot firmly enclosing one paw. This ren- 

 ders it impossible for them to escape from 

 their pursuers by climbing, and they are 

 easily run down." 



mi -, ii> p 1-1 



1 he remaining dry dehiscent fruits which 



FlG - 587. MEADOW-SAFFRON. 



Transverse section, illustrating septicida 



