CAPPARIDE^E 179 



CAPPAKJDEJE. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 103. 



Fruit and Seed. The Order falls into two divisions accord- 

 ing as the fruit is dry and capsular as in Cleome, Cleomella, 

 Cristatella, and others ; or on the other hand baccate like 

 Capparis, Morisonia, and Mserua, or drupaceous as in the one- 

 seeded fruit of Eoydsia. In the capsular types, the Order 

 approaches Cruciferse very closely. The fruit is siliquose in 

 all the genera of the Cleomege except "VYislizenia and Oxy- 

 stylis, where it is short, didymous, and breaks up into inde- 

 hiscent one-seeded pieces. The Capparese have baccate and 

 indehiscent fruits with the seeds embedded in pulp. The 

 ovules in all cases are parietal, campylotropous or semiana- 

 tropous, and the seeds reniforni in the dry fruits, reniform or 

 angular in the baccate fruits. The angular condition may 

 depend upon the number of seeds in a fruit and the effect of 

 mutual pressure. When the pulp is plentiful, separating the 

 seeds from one another, they retain the usual shape of the 

 campylotropous ovules. Usually the seeds are exalbuminous, 

 but there is a thin layer of endosperm surrounding the 

 embryo of Capparis sandwichiana (fig. 182) and a thick layer 

 in which the curved embryo is embedded in Tovaria, an 

 anomalous genus containing only one species, referred to the 

 Papaveraceae byEichlerand compared with the Phytolaccacese 

 by Bentham and Hooker. It is probable that a careful 

 examination of many species would reveal the presence of 

 endosperm in other cases besides Capparis sandwichiana. 

 The testa is thick, coriaceous, and smooth or often rough in 

 species with a capsular fruit. The embryo is bent or in- 

 curved, or spirally convolute, and the cotyledons are incum- 

 bent, plaited or convolute, and induplicate, as may be seen by 

 reference to the transverse section of Capparis sandwichiana. 



Cotyledons. As far as observed (seeds and seedlings of 

 different species being difficult to obtain) the cotyledons after 

 germination are always broad, petiolate, obtuse, and entire, 



N 2 



