472 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
a capsule. More frequently the walls of the fruit become succulent 
and it does not open, when it would be termed a berry or baccate 
fruit. But still more frequently the calyx also becomes succulent and 
takes on the colour of the fruit, which thus forms a pseudocarp. 
When white in colour (though pink or red is the commoner tint) this 
fruit is popularly known as Snowberry. According to the usual rules 
of nomenclature the species of plant produces fruit belonging to three 
different classes; but looked at from the standpoint of development, 
it is merely a question of the best mode of getting its seed distributed 
which has brought about the various modifications. The general 
form and structure of the fruit, then, may be taken as mainly depen- 
dent on the method of scattering the seed. Without generalizing too 
closely, it may be stated as a common rule that the simplicity or 
complexity of contrivance for this purpose and the number of seeds 
produced in each seed-vessel are closely correlated. Thus fruits 
which only produce one or two seeds. have usually some special mode 
of distribution, while those which have a large number are generally 
simpler in structure. 
In many plants the seeds are simply allowed to drop out, or the 
fruits fall to the ground and decay, the seeds germinating as soon as 
the decay has gone far enough to allow them to break through the 
wall. To this section belong all capsular fruits such as those of the 
chickweed, violet, poppy, frogsmouth, pea, and. cabbage, in which the 
walls become dry as the seeds ripen, and ultimately split open. It 
also includes such fruits as those of radish, some clovers, Indian cress, 
Xe, which break up and fall to the ground without liberating their 
seeds. And we may class under the same group the various kinds of 
nut-like fruits, large or small, which appear to have no special means 
of dispersion, such as are produced by buttercups, forget me-nots, 
hazels, oaks, and cereal grasses (wheat, oats, &c). But even among 
these simpler forms, specialization is often shewn. The whin pod 
becomes elastic under the influence of the sun’s heat, and splits with 
sufficient force to jerk the seeds out some little distance. The balsam 
pod when ripe opens its valves in & curious twisting manner, which 
must help to scatter the seeds; while its allies, the shamrocks (Ozalis) 
have a very elastic coat to their seeds, which makes them jump two 
or three feet away.. All geraniums have a fruit consisting of five 
parts (or carpels) each containing a seed, and attached together by 
their styles into a long beak, which gives them their common name of 
Crane’s-bills as well as their technical name. In some spccies this 
beak is hygroscopic, straightening out when damp and curling up 
when dry, and by this corkscrew process the seeds are buried. 
Probably the awns of many grass-seeds, such as those of barley, serve 
this purpose also, though protection would seem to be the first object 
But the most interesting modifications of fruits and seeds are 
those whereby their dispersion is facilitated by the wind, or by the 
agency of birds or by that of quadrupeds. 
Wind dispersion is attained by spreading out as large a surface 
as possible to catch the passing breeze, but it is singular how 
variously the object has been arrived at. The most familiar examples 
which will suggest themselves are found in the immense family of 
Composites, including thistles, dandelions, cape-weed, and numerous 
other well-known plants. In all these, one and the same organ effects 
