. The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution;. Botany. 874 THE DISPEESION OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF FRUITS AND SEEDS. With this curious form of fruit we may associate those in which the claws or hooked prickles are metamorphosed branches, or parts of abortive flowers situated on special ramifications. It will be sufficient to adduce two examples of this group, viz., Pupalia atropv/rpurea, of the family Amaranthacese, and Pteranihus echinatus (see fig. 478') of the family Paronychiacese. In Pupalia atropurpurea short branchlets spring from the axils of the b
. The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution;. Botany. 874 THE DISPEESION OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF FRUITS AND SEEDS. With this curious form of fruit we may associate those in which the claws or hooked prickles are metamorphosed branches, or parts of abortive flowers situated on special ramifications. It will be sufficient to adduce two examples of this group, viz., Pupalia atropv/rpurea, of the family Amaranthacese, and Pteranihus echinatus (see fig. 478') of the family Paronychiacese. In Pupalia atropurpurea short branchlets spring from the axils of the bracts; a few of them bear fruits, whilst the majority are modified into hooked prickles and form a tuft which easily fastens on to foreign bodies, and becomes detached from the main axis, Pteranihus echinatus. has several short branchlets in each inflorescence situated close to the fruit, and bearing at their extremities abortive flowers with hooked Mg. 479.âFruits which hook on to or stiolt into passing objects. Canx â muroglochm. a Single fruit of the same. > Oaliwm retrormm. 4 a piece of the stem of the same. ^ Carex Pseudojperm ' Smgle fruit of the same. 7 Trigloohin palmtre. "Single unripe fruit of the same. > Transverse section through the same fruit, i" Single ripe fruit with its component valves separated. 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 and w magnifled. All the clawed or prickly fruits and clusters of fruit above enumerated easily come away from the mother-plant when pulled by the objects to which they have attached themselves. But there are other cases where the hooks and claws are firmly attached to the axis of the plant as a whole, so much so indeed that if the object to which they are fastened gives a pull a large piece of the stem is torn away, and sometimes even the entire plant is uprooted and carried bodily away. To this class belong the fruits of several Eubiacese, of which Galium retrorsum (see figs. 479^ and 479 *) may be taken as a type. The fruit-
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbotany, bookyear1895
