480 



HUTCHINSON'S POPULAR BOTANY 



says Kerner, " have always been a source of wonder to botanists, and their 

 number is not large. The best known examples are Arachis hypogcea, 

 Cardamine chenopodiifolia, Linaria cymbcdaria, Phrynium micans, Trifolium 

 fiubtei*raneum, and Vie-in amphicarpa. If these plants were only to bring 

 fruit to maturity underground, or were to draw all their fruits below the 

 ground as soon as the seeds were mature, in order that germination and the 

 development of new plants might ensue at that spot, their behaviour 

 would imply a renunciation of dispersion to any distance, and the phe- 

 nomenon would be highly enigmatic. The puzzle is satisfactorily solved, 

 however, when we take into account the fact that all these plants in- 

 variably have the chance of being dispersed to great distances either 

 before the fruits become concealed in the earth, or by means of a second 

 form of fruit which ripens aboveground, and is evidently adapted to being 

 scattered abroad through the agency of animals, or by means of aerial or 



Photo ft;/] [E. Step. 



FIG. 591. BRAZIL NUT (Bertholletia excelsa). 



The hard-shelled triangular nuts to the number of fifteen or twenty are enclosed in a thick-walled, woody fruit which 

 oan only be broken by <zreat force. The seeds (" nuts ") are released naturally by the rotting of this strong-box. 



