3 i8 STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



pericarp relation in the husky fruit of Barringtonia speciosa is 

 especially instructive. Here, as shown in the table in Note 

 1 1 of the Appendix, the pericarp proportion remains as high 

 as 98 or 99 per cent, until the fruit has attained to one-third 

 of the full size. When the fruit is half size, it is still as 

 much as 96 per cent., and after this falls to 82 per cent, in 

 the full-grown fruit, and to about 50 per cent, when the 

 fruit is lying completely dry on the ground. 

 Thesignifi- Much significance lies in the circumstance that as the fruit 



dries on the plant the seeds form a larger proportion of the 



weight of the entire fruit. When the moist fruit dries the peri- 

 e pen- o 



carp loses carp loses far more water than the seed, the result being that 



water than whilst the fruit-case dies the seed lives. If we were to strike 



the seed. a j-^gh average from the data given in the table on p. 320, and 



more particularly from the results summarised for types at its 



end, we would say that whilst seeds as a rule lose half their 



weight during the drying process on the plant before entering the 



rest-period, the pericarp loses generally from 70 to 85 per cent. 



And it is in It is, however, in the behaviour of the pericarp that fruits 



of the peri- differ most, the seeds as a rule presenting much less contrast 



fm^dfffer * n ^ s respect. Taking the averages below given, we find 



most. that the pericarp sustains the greatest loss of 86 or 87 per 



cent, in the case of typical fleshy or pulpy berries and typical 



moist capsules, the living capsule being essentially a more or 



less fleshy and watery fruit. The significance of this close 



similarity in behaviour has been already dealt with in Chapter 



XII ; but it is of interest here to note again that ripe fruits 



seemingly so contrasted as those of the Apple, Gooseberry, 



(Ribes), Prickly Pear (Opunfia), on the one hand, and those 



of Canna, Datura, Ipomcea, and Iris on the other, yield up 



much the same amount of water as the fruit-case dries naturally 



on the plant. Next come fleshy drupes, typically represented 



by those of Prunus communis, which experience a loss of 75 



per cent. Then we have the legumes with an average loss 



of weight of 72 or 73 per cent. ; and last come the large woody 



capsules, exemplified by those of the Mahogany tree, Ravena/a, 



