speciosa. 



THE PROPORTION OF PARTS IN FRUITS 295 



results in excess of what would happen under natural conditions 

 which would be best imitated in the method of drying the 

 entire fruit. One or two reasons led me, when accepting the 

 result of the second method, to reduce it slightly, and the 

 shrinking ratio of 100 to 15 for the fruit was finally adopted. 



The next step was to determine the separate shrinking Theshrink- 

 ratios for the pericarp and the seed of the moist fruit. In sqfarate^ 

 spite of its husky appearance, the pericarp, like the husk of the P|gjf "f^ ^^ 

 coco-nut, contains a very large amount of water. Two plans Barringtonia 

 were followed here, as below described. 



(i) The relative weights of the husk and seed of the moist 

 and dry fruits were obtained, and the results were 

 applied to the shrinking ratio of the entire fruit as 

 above ascertained. In this manner it was found that 

 in the moist mature fruit the weight of the pericarp 

 constituted about 80 per cent, of the weight of the 

 entire fruit, whilst in the dry fruit it amounted to 

 about 50 per cent. Since the fruit attains its full 

 size far in advance of the seed, it was necessary to 

 select moist fruits where the seed had attained the 

 maximum weight. 



(2) The actual shrinkage or loss of weight was obtained 

 separately for the pericarp and seed of the moist 

 fruit with the following results : — 



Ratio of shrinkage for the pericarp 100 to 10. 

 „ „ „ seed 100 „ 40. 



Supplementary observations on individual fruits led me to 

 the opinion that in the results of the first method the weight of 



