366 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



which we only retain as sections. The fruit (figs. 438, 442), crowned 

 by the persistent calyx, and often by the remains of the corolla and 



Hibes ruhrum. 



Fie. 436. 

 Diagram. 



Fig. 437. 

 Long. sect, of flower (*). 



Fig. 439. 

 Seed (f). 



Fig. 438. 



Fruits. 



Fig. 440. 

 Long sect, of seed. 



androceum, is a berry, containing a variable number of seeds in its 

 pulp. These 1 have a pulpy or fleshy outer coat,* and a crustaceous 

 deeper one, under which is the fleshy albumen, lodging a little 

 cylindrical embryo near its apex. This genus consists of shrubs, 

 unarmed or covered with glands 3 or prickles. 4 Their leaves are 

 alternate, petiolate, simple, entire or variably incised, with the 

 stipules absent, or membranous and adnate to the petiole. The 

 flowers are solitary, fascicled, or more frequently in racemes, each 

 flower axillary to a bract, and with usually a few sterile bractlets on 



1 Leetjwenh., Obs. on the Seeds of the Goose- 

 berry, in Trans. Phil, xvii. (1693), 953, figs. 11, 

 12. 



2 It is chiefly formed of the hypertrophied cells 

 of the outer ovular envelope, and hence repre- 

 sents a sort of generalized aril comparable to that 

 of Magnolia, Pierardia, &c, but has different 

 cell -contents. Thus the pulp of the fruit has a 

 double origin, from the outer seed-coat as well as 

 the pericarp. 



3 Often stipitate, secreting a viscid or resinous 

 matter. 



4 They may be scattered over the branches, 

 &c. In certain species they are, as we shall see 

 below, localized at the insertion of the leaves, 

 where they result from an extreme development 

 of the suberous layer of the pulvinus. In this 

 case they must not be confounded with spinescent 

 stipules, for the stipules, when present, are to be 

 found a little way off, with their usual characters. 



