244 



STUDIES IN SEEDS AND FRUITS 



(rf) by Passi- 



nora 



pectinata. 



the green berry are greenish yellow, whilst those of the red 

 are brown, the " browning " beginning in the green berry. 

 InlDoth stages the seeds are firm and the albumen solid, but 

 the brown seeds are rather harder. 



From the berries of Passifiora pectinata, a species first 

 described from the Bahamas, the same evidence is obtained. 

 I made a study of these fruits in the island of Grand Turk at 

 the southern end of the group. In the red mature berry the 

 dark purplish crustaceous seeds are enclosed each of them in a 

 moist, pulpy aril, as is characteristic of the genus, the whole 

 interior of the fruit being moist. In the green, full-grown 

 unripe fruit, the seeds are dark green, heavier, larger, and 

 rather softer than in the ripe berry, the interior of the fruit, 

 together with the saccate arils, being relatively dry. The results 

 of my observations may be thus tabulated. 



Table showing the Contraction of the Seeds of 

 Passiflora pectinata in the Ripening Berry. 



Condition of fruit. 



Full-grown, dryish 

 green berry 



Red, ripe, moist 

 berry 



The loss in weight of the seed was about 1 1 per cent. 



The signifi- The shrinking of the seed immersed in the moist pulp of 



canceofthe , • • vc ^ • j ^- 1 1 u 



shrinking of ' a berry is significant in many ways, and particularly because 



the mo^t" ^*- supplies, as already observed, a clue by which we can trace 



berry. the homologies in the maturing and drying stages of very 



different types of fruits. Or perhaps we would better 



describe it as aflfording a datum-mark to which we can reduce 



for purposes of comparison the various conditions presented 



by such fruits. 



