OXAGRARIE.E 553 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PL i. 785. 



Fruit and Seed. The inferior ovary is four-celled in the 

 more typical forms, but the number of cells varies from one 

 to six, the ovary being one-celled when the septa are incom- 

 plete. The ovules are generally very numerous, anatropous, 

 ascending or pendulous, and arranged in a single or double 

 series, rarely in many series, upon the axile placentas. In 

 Diplandra, Circsea, Trapa, Gaura, Heterogaura and Gongylo- 

 carpus the ovules are solitary and pendulous or ascending, in 

 each cell, while the one-celled ovary of Stenosiphon, a mono- 

 typic genus from Texas, contains four pendulous ovules. The 

 fruit is capsular, less often baccate as in Fuchsia, or nut-like 

 as in Trapa. Capsular fruits are very frequently elongated 

 and cylindrical, or quadrangular, dehiscing septicidally, or 

 loculicidally by four longitudinal valves. 



The seeds are numerous or few according to the number 

 of ovules, but vary in number, and somewhat in size, even 

 within the limits of a genus, as, for instance, in (Enothera ; 

 they are for the most part comparatively small, those of Trapa 

 being exceptionally large. The testa is thin, membranous 

 or coriaceous, and smooth or papillose, with the papillae hard 

 when the seeds are mature. The seeds of Epilobium are 

 comose at the apex as frequently occurs in the Asclepiadese, 

 or at one or both extremities of the seeds of the Apocynaceae 

 and Salicineae. Endosperm is wanting or is reduced to a thin 

 stratum as in some species of (Enothera and Eucharidium. 

 The embryo is generally obovoid, and conforms to the interior 

 of the seed. The cotyledons are plano-convex, compressed, 

 sometimes slender, rarely curved and very rarely convolute ; 

 and the radicle is short and straight, rarely curved as in 

 Trapa. 



The fruit of the last-named genus is very exceptional, being 

 nut-like, turbinate, and terminated by two or four spines, one- 

 celled, one-seeded and indehiscent. The testa is spongy, and 

 very much thickened in the upper part. The embryo is very 



