STRUCTURE OF FRUIT. ] 03 



top, and surrounding the membranous, polyspermous, 

 verticillate carpels, which form the true fruit- During 1 

 flowering and maturation, it seems to adhere strictly to 

 the carpels, but at maturity it becomes detached at the 

 base, and then we clearly see the distinction between 

 these organs. 



It is nearly the same in the Poppy : here the torus 

 appears under the form of a thin lamina, which sur- 

 rounds the carpels and completely adheres to them, ex- 

 cept at the top of the ovary ; the valves of the fruit, 

 when they open at the top, are retained in their place 

 by this adherent sheath of the torus, and it is this which 

 causes the dehiscence of the Poppy under the form of 

 teeth or very short valvules, and not throughout the 

 whole length of the valves, as in the other Papaveraceae. 



The Orange only seems to differ from the precedino- 

 examples, in that the torus, which is thick and glandular 

 externally, completely surrounds the carpels to the 

 origin of the style, and adheres to them by means of 

 very lax cellular tissue ; remove this continuous torus, 

 and you find the carpels verticillate around an imaginary 

 axis, separable without tearing, of a membranous tex- 

 ture, and etiolated like all shaded organs ; filled inter- 

 nally with a peculiar kind of pulp, which differs from 

 that of all other fruits, in its being enclosed in kinds of 

 utricles which arise from the walls of the carpels. 



In the Capparideae, Passifloreaa, and some Legumi- 

 nosae, the torus only adheres to the thecaphore, and the 

 fruit itself is completely naked. 



Such are the principal examples where we see the 

 torus adhering to or surrounding the fruit, without the 

 calyx or perigone following the same course. In Nym- 

 phcea, or white-flowered Water-lily, the stamens and 

 petals are united at their base with the torus, whence it 

 results that they seem adherent to the ovary ; they are 



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