SAXIFRAGES 503 



The fruit is capsular, or baccate, more rarely truly folli- 

 cular or nut-like. Examples of the last type are met with in 

 Ceratopetalum with a four-winged, bony nut, and in Aphano- 

 petalum and Codia with nuts of a softer or less woody nature, 

 and all one-seeded. The seeds are generally very numerous, 

 and small or minute especially in the herbaceous types, with 

 a membranous or leathery, smooth or pilose testa. Frequently 

 they are more or less evidently winged ; and in Brexia mada- 

 gascariensis the testa is crustaceous. Endosperm is nearly 

 always present in considerable quantity, but in a few it is 

 scanty, or sometimes altogether wanting in Brexia and 

 Ixerba. 



The embryo is in the majority of cases very small and 

 ovoid, cylindrical or terete, with plano-convex cotyledons, often 

 scarcely broader than the radicle. Exceptions occur in Brexia 

 and Ixerba, which have a large embryo and flat cotyledons, 

 and in Geissois with flattened seeds, and a large embryo with 

 subfoliaceous cotyledons, equalling the length of the endo- 

 sperm. 



A moderately large embryo is met with in Saxifraga peltata, 

 having linear-oblong cotyledons, which with the radicle are 

 more or less three-fourths as long as the copious endosperm. 

 A similar case is met with in S. orassifolia, which has oblong, 

 longitudinally ribbed seeds from -75-1-25 mm. in length, and 

 an embryo nearly as long as the endosperm. A very 

 different type is met with in Eibes, the species of which 

 have numerous more or less angled seeds lying in the pulp 

 of a berry. The fruit is one-celled with parietal placentas. 

 The, testa is very thick, the outer layer being cartilaginous 

 and bard when dry, but swelling up and mucilaginous in 

 water, while the inner coat is thin and rather crustaceous, 

 ojf brittle and black. The embryo is ovoid and very minute, 

 lying close to the hilum embedded in a copious endosperm. 

 Bibes glutinosum (fig. 330) represents this type. 



Seedlings. The cotyledons in this Order vary within very 

 narrow limits from ovate to oblong and spathulate. They 

 may also for convenience sake be classified under two heads, 

 namely, large and small. Most if not all of the herbaceous 

 types have very small seeds and small cotyledons. The leading 



