294 ON SEEDLINGS 



ZYGOPHYLLE.E. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL i. 262. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary of the Zygophylleae is four- or 

 five-, rarely two- to twelve-celled, and the ovules vary from two to 

 many in each cell. They are pendulous and anatropous or 

 sometimes ascending with a ventral raphe, have a superior 

 micropyle, and are often filiform. A remarkable exception 

 occurs in a few species of Tribulus, where the carpels opposite 

 the petals are transversely three- to five-locellate, both in the 

 young and the mature state, so that the seeds lie in an ascending 

 direction one above the other with partitions between them. 



The fruit is very variable in the Order, coriaceous or 

 crustaceous, dividing into dehiscent or indehiscent cocci, which 

 are connate, or separate from the placental axis ; at other times 

 it is a capsule dehiscing loculicidally, and in a few the endocarp 

 is horny. The fruit of Nitraria is drupaceous when mature, 

 one-celled and one-seeded although two- to six-celled in the 

 young state. The seeds are pendulous, and solitary in most 

 cases, oblong or linear, with a membranous, crustaceous, or 

 thick and slimy testa. They contain a thin layer of endosperm, 

 often fleshy or horny, and are rarely exalbuminous. 



The embryo is straight or nearly so, green, and equalling 

 the endosperm in length. The cotyledons are foliaceous and 

 oblong or linear, the radicle rather short. 



GERAXIACEyE. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL i. 269. 



Fruit and Seed. The gyncecium of the Geraniacese is 

 superior and syncarpous, consisting of three to five, rarely two 

 carpels. The ovary is three- to five-lobed, three- to five-celled, 

 and in the tribes Geranieae and Pelargonieae the carpels are in 

 most cases prolonged above into a long beak, attached to the 

 central axis, which is also greatly prolonged between and beyond 

 the seed-bearing portion : in the other tribes the beak is usually 

 absent. The ovules are geminate and contiguously superposed, 



