116 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



with their micropyles downward and inwards. The fruit is dry, 

 narrow, and elongate; in short, it is formed like a siliqua, recalling 

 in externals that of many Crucifers, but lacking the false septum ; 

 when mature the two valves separate from the placenta, which, 

 surmounted by the style, forms a narrow elongated frame, supporting 

 the ascending seeds. These (figs. 135-136) have the micropyle in- 

 ferior and contain copious 



Chelidonium majus {Common Celandine). fleshy albumen ai'OUnd the 



minute embryo, while the 

 raphe is dilated towards its 

 centre into a little arcuate 

 arillar crest. 1 Chelidonium 

 comprises erect branching 

 herbs, with coloured latex. 

 The leaves are dissected, 

 their lobes varying greatly 

 in size with the form or 

 variety. The flowers form 

 an umbelliform cyme on 

 top of a common terminal 

 peduncle. 2 Though bota- 

 nists have admitted several 

 species in this genus it 

 probably contains only one, 3 which has been observed in Europe, 

 Temperate Asia, and North America. 



We find the fundamental organization of the Celandine in the 

 Horn-Poppies 4 (Fr., Glaucieres, Pavots coram ; fig. 137). But the 

 stigmatiferous lobes of the style are more marked, and persist, 

 extending into a four-lobed cupule above the apex of the seed. The 

 fruit is itself very long, cylindrical, more or less bowed. Inside it 



Fig. 134. 

 Floriferous branch. 



Fig. 136. 



Long:, sect, of seed. 



1 The cells of the surface are here hvper- 

 trophied, thus forming an aril of the raphe, which 

 has often been termed a strophiole. 



2 Sometimes leaf-opposed, owing to the rapid 

 development of the axillary branch. 



3 C. majus Mill., Diet., n. 1. — L., Spec, 

 723.— Reichb., Ic. Fl. Germ., Hi. t. 10. — Gkex. 

 & Gode., Fl. de Fr., i. 62. — C. laciniatum Mill., 

 Diet., n. 2. — C. quercifolium Willem., Fl. Lorr., 

 ii. 613. 



4 Glaucium T., Inst., 254, t. 130.— L. ( Gen., 

 n. 236. — Adaxs., Fam. des PL, ii. 432. — J., 

 Gen., 236. — G.EETN., Fritct., ii. 165, t. 115.— 

 Lamk., Did., Suppl., ii. 209, 789.— DC, Syst., 

 ii. 94; Prodr., i. 122. — Bebxh., in Linncea, viii. 

 463. — Spach, Suit, a Buffon, vii. 30. — Exdl... 

 Gen., n. 4826.— Payee, Organog., t.47. — B. H., 

 Gen., 53, n. 12. 



