LEGUMIXOSJi 383 



indicus, or dry, thick, leathery, and indehiscent, as in Ceratonia 

 Siliqua, nut-like as in Arachis hypogaea, or rarely drupaceous. 

 Sometimes it dehisces by the ventral suture only, like a 

 follicle ; in other cases, as in Hedysarum and in some species 

 of Desrnodium, it is lomentaceous. The internal cavity is 

 continuous, or divided transversely by spurious septa, as in 

 Entada, Tamarindus, some of the Cassias, Ceratonia Siliqua, 

 and others. 



The testa is coriaceous, bony, or greatly thickened, rarely 

 membranous. The funicle is thickened, or arillate in many 

 instances, or there is a thickened process near the hilum, 

 termed a strophiole. Endosperm is wanting or scanty in the 

 suborders Papilionacese and Mimoseae ; when present it is Un- 

 equally distributed, and collected in greatest quantity round 

 the radicle, so as to occupy the space not filled by the embryo. 

 Swartzia madagascariensis, belonging to the Papilionaceae, is 

 exceptional in having small seeds with a copious endosperm. 

 Albuminous seeds are the rule in the suborder Csesalpiniese, 

 and in many of the species belonging to it the endosperm is 

 copious and cartilaginous. 



The embryo is large and occupies the whole of the seed 

 where endosperm is wanting. The cotyledons are flat or 

 plano-convex, and foliaceous, or thick, fleshy, and frequently 

 subterranean in germination. The radicle in this case is 

 superior, incurved, accumbent, and where it is of appreciable 

 length it is so much curved as to come down on the ventral 

 face. In such cases the ovule and seed are amphitropous. In 

 some rare cases the radicle is inferior. The embryo is gene- 

 rally straight in the Csesalpinieas, particularly where a copious 

 endosperm is present. 



The seeds observed may be divided into two groups, namely 

 those with, and those without, endosperm. This does not 

 always indicate the closest affinities, although in most cases 

 the two groups belong to different suborders. It may be con- 

 venient to subdivide the latter group into two, according to 

 some peculiarity of the cotyledons. Phaseolus multiflorus 

 (fig. 289) may be given as a type where the cotyledons are 

 slightly unequal at the base, owing to the space being occupied 

 by the radicle. This is more markedly the case in many 



