The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey.
- William H. Harvey
- Date:
- 1868
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The genera of South African plants : arranged according to the natural system / by William Henry Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.
35/556
![Any two ports of the flower are, coherent, when united together, hut so slightly that they can he separated with little or no laceration. Each of the two cohe- rent parts may he said to he adheretit to the other, hut the latter term is often used to express a closer union than more coherence. [Some authors restrict cohesion to the connation or confluence of parts of the same whorl; and adhesion to the connation or confluence of parts of difierent whorls.] connate, when so closely united that they cannot he separated with- out laceration. Each of the two connate parts, and especially that one which is considered the smaller or of the least import- ance, is said to he adnate to the other. free, when neither coherent nor connate. distinct is also used in the same sense, hut is likewise applied to parts distinctly visible, or distinctly limited. § 15. The Fruit. 130. The Prmt consists of the ovary and whatever other parts of the flower persist at the time the seed is ripe, usually enlarged and altered in shape and consistence. It encloses or covers the seed or seeds till the period of maturity, when it either opens for the seed to escape, or falls to the ground with the seed. 131. Fruits are often said to ho simple, when formed in a single flower ; compound (or ijaore properly collective), when they proceed from several flowers closely packed or combined in a head. In descriptive botany a fruit is always supposed to result from a single flower, unless the contrary he stated. In compoimd fruits (the fruits of several flowers) the involucre or bracts often persist and form part of the fruit, hut very seldom so in simple fruits. 132. The pericarp is the portion of the fhiit formed of the ovary and whatever adheres to it exclusive of and outside of the seed or seeds, ex- clusive also of the persistent receptacle, or of whatever portion of the calj-x persists roimd the ovary without adhering to it. 133. Fruits may ho divided into succulent (including fleshy, pulpy, and juicy) and dry. They are dehiscent when they open at matm-ity to let out the seeds; indehiscent, when they do not open spontaneously, hut fall ofi‘ with the seeds. Succulent fruits are almost always indehiscent. 134. The principal succulent fruits are, the berry, in which the whole substance of the pericarp is fleshy or pulpy, with the exception of the outer skin or rind, called the epicarp. The seeds are usually immersed in the pulp. the dnipe or stone-fruit, in which the pericarp, when ripe, consists of two distinct portions, an outer succulent one called the sarcocarp or mesocarp (covered by a skin or epicai-p) and an inner dry en- docarp, called the putainen or stone. When there are two or more stones, they are called pyrenes. 135. The principal dry fruits are, the achene, or akene, including all one-seeded, dry and hard, inde- hiscent, seed-like small fruits, poi^ularly called “naked seeds.” Such fruits maj' arise from free one-seeded carpels (as in the Buttercup); or from adherent or inferior carjjels (as in the Compositte.) the utricle, similar to the akene, hut with a thin and loose mem- branous pericarj). the nut, a hard, oue-celled, one-seeded fruit like an akene, hut larger, and usually resulting from a plurilocular ovary, all of whose cells and ovules, save one, become obliterated in the ripe fruit; as in the Hazel-nut, Acom, etc. c 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28117347_0035.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
