CAPPARIDACE.%. 



151 



gynseceum is supported by a long stalk, the prolongation of the 

 floral receptacle ; it consists of an ovary surmounted by a little 

 subsessile stigmatiferous head. The ovary is divided into seven or 



Fig. 177. 

 Fruit. 



Capparis spinosa. 



Fig. 176. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 178. 

 Seed (f ). 



Fig. 179. 

 Long. sect, of seed. 



eight cells by very thin septa, which unite along the axis into a 

 sort of thickened cylinder, 1 and bear on both surfaces an indefinite 

 number of campylotropous ovules. 2 The fruit is a long stipitate 

 berry (fig. 177), lodging in its pulp 3 a large number of campylo- 



1 On fecundation this column becomes pulpy 

 and scarcely visible, so that the ovary then seems 

 one-celled, and only divided by rudiments of 

 septa. In this respect it returns to the early 

 stage of its ontogeny, when its single cavity was 

 only imperfectly divid3d by the centripetal pla- 

 centas springing from the periphery. 



2 They have two coats. 



3 In this fruit the septa become gradually 



thickened, soft, and pulpy. They form, together 

 with the inner stratum of the convex wall of the 

 cell, a whitish mass, in which the seeds are finally 

 imbedded. This matrix gradually passes into a, 

 green zone, formed of much denser tissue, outside 

 which are traced a variable number of white 

 vertical lines. These show through the whitish 

 membranous superficial layer, which may be 

 easily detached from the rest of the pericarp. 



