FICOIDE/E 13 



FICOIDEJE. 



Benth. et Hook. Gen. PI. i. 851. 



Fruit and Seed. The ovary is inferior in Mesembryan- 

 themum and Tetragonia, but in other genera it is usually 

 surrounded by the persistent calyx. The carpels vary from four 

 to twenty, and unite so as to form an ovary of as many cells. 

 The ovules are solitary and basal, or suspended from the top 

 of the cell, or they are numerous and arranged on placentas 

 attached to the inner angles of the cells, and amphitropous. 

 The fruit is capsular, dehiscing longitudinally, or transversely 

 at the apex. In comparatively few cases it is an achene, or 

 drupe, or consists of several lignified pieces, while in other 

 cases it breaks up into cocci or utriculi. The seeds are solitary 

 or indefinite, reniform, globose, or obovoid, with a membranous 

 or crustaceous testa. Endosperm is present in greater or less 

 quantity and in most cases is of a farinaceous character. The 

 embryo is most often more or less curved or subannular, 

 peripheral, and terete, with linear, plano-convex, incumbent 

 cotyledons and a terete radicle. 



There are several exceptional forms in the Order, the most 

 marked of which is Adenogramma, consisting of seven species 

 of South African plants having a one-celled, one-ovuled ovary, 

 and a fleshy endosperm. 



The ovary of Gisekia is apocarpous, and consists of five 

 carpels, while in Trianthema and sometimes Galenia there is 

 only one carpel. A type of the Order is represented by Tetra- 

 gonia expansa (fig. 403), having somewhat flask-shaped seeds 

 suspended one from the apex of each cell by a slender funicle. 

 The embryo is terete, and surrounds nearly the whole of the 

 periphery of the endosperm, with the radicle occupying the 

 neck of the seed. The fruit is many-celled, woody, and inde- 

 hiscent, with generally a seed in each cell. The mode of ger- 

 mination is shown in fig. 404 : the embryo pushes its way 

 through the apex of the fruit, where the walls are very thin 

 in places. In order to make their exit through these narrow 

 openings, it is necessary that the cotyledons should be linear. 



