CLUE TO THE HOMOLOGIES OF FRUITS 253 



however methodical the process may appear to be, depends 

 on a structural character which was originally developed for 

 a special purpose in the living plant and could have had no 

 concern with the liberation of seeds from a dead pod, we 

 must confess that this appearance of method is purely accidental. 

 It is an accident that I am able to avail myself of the binder's 

 crease in tearing the sheets of a book into regular portions ; 

 and to that extent the mode of dehiscence is accidental with 

 the Ulex pod. It will subsequently be shown that if this 

 parallelism between the dry, dehiscing pod and the decaying, 

 shrivelled berry is valid, it ought to have a far-reaching 

 influence on our views of adaptation and seed-dispersal. 



My readers will in this connection recall those numerous 

 leguminous pods that liberate the seeds only by breaking 

 down through decay, and I shall in a later page point out 

 that the peculiar form of moniliform pods, which is there 

 described, is probably determined by constrictions induced in 

 an earlier stage of the development of the fruit by the abortion 

 of the ovules, and the premature shrinking of the seeds. 



Comparison of the mean Results obtained for Berries, Capsules, 

 AND Legumes, with Respect to the Relative Weights of the 

 Seeds during the Maturation and Drying of the Fruits, the 

 Weight of the Seed in the Green Unripe Fruit being taken 

 as 100. 



The results here given are for the berries of Berberis, Passiflora, Arum maculatitm, 

 and Tamus communis ; for the capsules of jEsculus Hippocastanum (Horse-chestnut) and 

 IrU Pseudacorus ; and for the legumes of Casalpinia sepiaria and Ulex europaus (Gorse). 



