APPENDIX 



485 



Note. — With the exception of the average weight which here applies to six- or seven- 

 seeded pods, the results apply to any normal pod. 



It is thus obvious that the drying under ordinary air-conditions of 

 detached moist ripe pods of Pisum sativum does not represent the drying 

 which takes place on the plant. That peculiar partial bleaching which 

 the drying pod displays on the plant is but little if at all produced by 

 merely drying the detached green pod. It is not merely a question of 

 colour but a question of weight, the dried detached pod being not only 

 greener, but also, when deprived of its seeds, double the weight of the 

 husk of the fruit that has dried naturally on the plant. 



Two kinds of drying of the legume, determined by the detach- 

 ment or non-detachment of the fruit, also came under my notice 

 in other leguminous plants, such as Casalpinia.^ Guilandina^ Vicia^ 

 etc. With Guilandina bonducella they were very conspicuous. 

 Pods on the plant dried black or dark brown ; whilst those in my 

 room dried green. Green two-seeded pods allowed to dry on my 

 working table on different occasions in Jamaica, Grenada, and Grand 

 Turk gave closely similar results, both in the retention of more or less 

 of their green hue and in the ultimate dry weight of the pericarp, 

 which ranged only between 41 and 47 grains. The loss of weight 

 experienced by the pericarp in four sets of experiments on single fruits 

 in these three localities varied only between 74 and 78 per cent. 



On the other hand, pods of Guilandina bonducella that had dried on 

 the plant had not only lost their green colour but were very sensibly 

 lighter in weight. In Grenada three double-seeded pods gathered dry 

 and dehiscing from the plant had an average weight of 23 grains 

 without their seeds. In the same way, five similar pods gathered dry in 

 Grand Turk gave an average weight of 27 grains. 



This difference in the weights of dried detached and undetached 

 pods of this species of Guilandina must be reflected in the difference in 

 the loss of weight experienced when drying. The average moist 

 weight of the four detached pods without their seeds was 182 grains, 



