244 STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



the green berry are greenish yellow, whilst those of the red 

 are brown, the " browning " beginning in the green berry. 

 In both stages the seeds are firm and the albumen solid, but 

 the brown seeds are rather harder. 



From the berries of Passiflora pectinata, a species first 

 described from the Bahamas, the same evidence is obtained. 

 I made a study of these fruits in the island of Grand Turk at 

 the southern end of the group. In the red mature berry the 

 dark purplish crustaceous seeds are enclosed each of them in a 

 moist, pulpy aril, as is characteristic of the genus, the whole 

 interior of the fruit being moist. In the green, full-grown 

 unripe fruit, the seeds are dark green, heavier, larger, and 

 rather softer than in the ripe berry, the interior of the fruit, 

 together with the saccate arils, being relatively dry. The results 

 of my observations may be thus tabulated. 



Table showing the Contraction of the Seeds of 

 Passiflora pectinata in the Ripening Berry. 



Condition of fruit. 



Full-grown, dryish 

 green berry 



Red, ripe, moist 

 berry 



Condition of 

 seeds. 



Dark green and 

 semi-crusta- 

 ceous in dryish 

 arils 



Dark purplish 

 and crustaceous 

 in moist, pulpy 

 arils 



Average weight Average length 

 of a seed. of a seed. 



Average breadth 

 of a seed. 



o'35 grain 5 '8 millimetres.j 3 "5 millimetres, 



0-31 



5"3 



The loss in weight of the seed was about 1 1 per cent. 



The shrinking of the seed immersed in the moist pulp of 

 a berry is significant in many ways, and particularly because 

 it supplies, as already observed, a clue by which we can trace 

 the homologies in the maturing and drying stages of very 

 different types of fruits. Or perhaps we would better 

 describe it as affording a datum-mark to which we can reduce 

 for purposes of comparison the various conditions presented 

 by such fruits. 



