Fruits 



177 



II. 



If a fruit remains closed or indehiscent it is usually one 

 seeded. It would be a disad- 

 vantage to have many seeds ger- 

 minating together. Fleshy fruits 

 rarely dehisce. 



Dehiscing fruits are called 

 pods or capsules. The bean, 

 Port Jackson, and Erthrbia 

 have a pod which has only one 

 carpel, and which splits along 

 both edges. It is called a 

 legume. 



Asclepias [Fachypodiitm) and 

 Crassula have similarly formed 

 fruits which split on one side 

 only. Such a fruit is a follicle. 



The siliqua and silicula are 

 found in the Cruciferse or mus- 

 tard family. They are made of two carpels joined by their 

 edges where the seeds are borne. A partition, or replum, 



Fig. 170. — Quinquepartite schizo- 

 carp of Gi^rariium Robertianinu ^ 

 L. I. The immature pistil. II. 

 The mature fruit. (From Thom(^ 

 and Bennett's " Structural and 

 Physiological Botany ".) 



-^4 



Fig. 171. — A schi- 

 zocarp consist- 

 ing of four nu- 

 cules. 



F'lG. 172. — Fruit of the 

 Fennel : a, carpo- 

 phore. 



Fig. 173. — Multipartite schi- 

 zocarp of -l/^i/z'(7. (From 

 Thomf^ and Bennett's 

 "Structural and Piiysio- 

 logical Botany.") 



grows up from below and divides the fruit into two chambers. 

 When ripe the two carpels split apart from the bottom upward, 

 leaving their edges with the seeds surrounding the replum. 

 If the fruit is several times longer than broad it is a siliqua ; 

 if it is about as long as broad it is a silicula. In some of the 

 Heliophilas the siliquas are prettily constricted so that they 

 look like a string of beads. If the fruit splits across at each 



12 



