Page:EB1911 - Volume 11.djvu/268

Fig. 6.—Seed-vessel or capsule of Campion, opening by ten teeth at the apex. The calyx c is seen surrounding the seed-vessel.
Fig. 7.—Capsule of Poppy, opening by pores p, under the radiating peltate stigma s.

When the fruit is mature and the seeds are ripe, the carpels usually give way either at the ventral or dorsal suture or at both, and so allow the seeds to escape. The fruit in this case is dehiscent. But some fruits are indehiscent, falling to the ground entire, and the seeds eventually reaching the Dehiscence of fruits. soil by their decay. By dehiscence the pericarp becomes divided into different pieces, or valves, the fruit being univalvular, bivalvular or multivalvular, &c., according as there are one, two or many valves. The splitting extends the whole length of the fruit, or is partial, the valves forming teeth at the apex, as in the order Caryophyllaceae (fig. 6). Sometimes the valves are detached only at certain points, and thus dehiscence takes place by pores at the apex, as in poppy (fig. 7), or at the base, as in Campanula. Indehiscent fruits are either dry, as the nut, or fleshy, as the cherry and apple. They are formed of one or several carpels. In the former case they usually contain only a single seed, which may become so incorporated with the pericarp as to appear to be naked, as in the grain of wheat and generally in grasses. In such cases the presence of the remains of style or stigma determines their true nature.

Fig. 8.	Fig. 9.	Fig. 10.
Fig. 11.	Fig. 12.	Fig. 13.
Fig. 8.—Dry dehiscent fruit. The pod (legume) of the Pea; r, the dorsal suture; b, the ventral; c, calyx; s, seeds. From Vines’ Students’ Text-Book of Botany, by permission of Swan Sonnenschein & Co.
Fig. 9.—(1) Fruit or capsule of Meadow Saffron (Colchicum autumnale), dehiscing along the septa (septicidally); (2) same cut across, showing the three chambers with the seeds attached along the middle line (axile placentation).
Fig. 10.—Diagram to illustrate the septicidal dehiscence in a pentalocular capsule. The loculaments l correspond to the number of the carpels, which separate by splitting through the septa, s.
Fig. 11.—The seed vessel (capsule) of the Flower-de-Luce (Iris), opening in a loculicidal manner. The three valves bear the septa in the centre, and the opening takes place through the back of the loculaments. Each valve is formed by the halves of contiguous carpels.
Fig. 12.—Diagram to illustrate loculicidal dehiscence. The loculaments l, split at the back, and the valves separate, bearing the septa s on their centres.
Fig. 13.—Diagram to illustrate septifragal dehiscence, in which the dehiscence takes place through the back of the loculaments l, and the valves separate from the septa s, which are left attached to the placentas in the centre.

Dehiscent fruits, when composed of single carpels, may open by the ventral suture only, as in the paeony, hellebore, Aquilegia (fig. 28) and Caltha; by the dorsal suture only, as in magnolias and some Proteaceae, or by both together, as in the pea (fig. 8) and bean; in these cases the dehiscence is sutural. When composed of several united carpels, two types of dehiscence occur—a longitudinal and a transverse. In the longitudinal the separation may take place by the dissepiments throughout their length, so that the fruit is resolved into its original carpels, and each valve represents a carpel, as in rhododendron, Colchicum, &c.; this dehiscence, in consequence of taking place through the septum, is called septicidal (figs. 9, 10). The valves separate from their commissure, or central line of union, carrying the placentas with them, or they leave the latter in the centre, so as to form with the axis a column of a cylindrical, conical or prismatic shape. Dehiscence is loculicidal when the union between the edges of the carpels is persistent, and they dehisce by the dorsal suture, or through the back of the loculaments, as in the lily and iris (figs. 11, 12). In these cases each valve consists of a half of each of two contiguous carpels. The placentas either remain united to the axis, or they separate from it, being attached to the septa on the valves. When the outer walls of the carpels break off from the septa, leaving them attached to the central column, the dehiscence is said to be septifragal (fig. 13), and where, as in Linum catharticum and Calluna, the splitting takes place first of all in a septicidal manner, the fruit is described as septicidally septifragal; while in other cases, as in thorn apple (Datura Stramonium), where the splitting is at first loculicidal, the dehiscence is loculicidally septifragal. In all those forms the separation of the valves takes place either from above downwards or from below upwards. In Saxifraga a splitting for a short distance of the ventral sutures of the carpels takes place, so that a large apical pore is formed. In the fruit of Cruciferae, as wallflower (fig. 14), the valves separate from the base of the fruit, leaving a central replum, or frame, which supports the false septum formed by a prolongation from the parietal placentas on opposite sides of the fruit, extending between the ventral sutures of the carpels. In Orchidaceae (fig. 15) the pericarp, when ripe, separates into three valves in a loculicidal manner, but the midribs of the carpels, to which the placentas are attached, often remain adherent to the axis both at the apex and base after the valves bearing the seeds have fallen. The other type of dehiscence is transverse, or circumscissile, when the upper part of the united carpels falls off in the form of a lid or operculum, as in Anagallis and in henbane (Hyoscyamus) (fig. 16).

Fig. 14.	Fig. 15.	Fig. 16. Fig. 17.	Fig. 18.
Fig. 14.—Siliqua or seed-vessel of Wallflower (Cheiranthus Cheiri), opening by two valves, which separate from the base upwards, leaving the seeds attached to the dissepiment which is supported by the replum. From Strasburger’s Lehrbuch der Botanik, by permission of Gustav Fischer.
Fig. 15.—Capsule of an Orchid (Xylobium). v, valve.
Fig. 16.—Seed-vessel of Anagallisarvensis, opening by circumscissile dehiscence. From Strasburger’s Lehrbuch der Botanik, by permission of Gustav Fischer.
Fig. 17.—Lomentum of Hedysarum which, when ripe, separates transversely into single-seeded portions or mericarps.
Fig. 18.—Fruit of Geranium pratense, after splitting.

Sometimes the axis is prolonged beyond the base of the carpels, as in the mallow and castor-oil plant, the carpels being united to it throughout their length by their faces, and separating from it without opening. In the Umbelliferae the two carpels separate from the lower part of the axis, and remain attached by their apices to a prolongation of it, called a carpophore or podocarp, which splits into two (fig. 25) and suspends them; hence the fruit is termed a cremocarp, which divides into two mericarps. The general term schizocarp is applied to all dry fruits, which break up into two or more one-seeded indehiscent mericarps, as in Hedysarum (fig. 17). In the order Geraniaceae the styles remain attached to a central column, and the mericarps separate from below upwards, before dehiscing by their ventral suture (fig. 18). Carpels which separate one from another in this manner are called cocci. They are well