File:The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution; (1902) (14579156220).jpg

Identifier: naturalhistoryof02kern (find matches)
Title: The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution;
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Kerner von Marilaun, Anton, 1831-1898 Oliver, Francis Wall, 1864- Macdonald, Mary Frances Ewart Busk, Marian Balfour, Lady
Subjects: Botany
Publisher: London, Blackie
Contributing Library: NCSU Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: NCSU Libraries

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resting upon them. Sometimes the rolled parts of thefruits, and, more rarely, the entire fruits themselves, are jerked off simultaneouslywith the seeds. There is the greatest variety in this respect, but all the con-trivances for expelling seeds resemble one another in the fact that through theiragency the seeds reach places beyond the range of the mother-plants. 834 THE DISPERSION OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF FRUITS AND SEEDS. In one class of expulsive fruits the high degree of tension which finally resultsin the disruption and rolling up of particular tissues is caused by a swelling up ofthe cell-membranes or by the turgidity of the cells. One of the most curiousinstances is that of the Squirting Cucumber (Ecballium Elaterium), which is shownin fig. 4581. This plant belongs to the Cucurbitaceae and its fruit resembles a smallfleshy cucumber beset with bristles and borne by a hooked stalk. The end of thestalk projects into the interior of the fruit like a stopper. When the seeds are quite
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Fig. 458.—Sling-fruits. Ecballium Elaterium; branch bearing flowers and fruits. 2 A fruit detaclied from its stalk and with its seeds squirting out.3 Oxalis Acetosella; entire plant with one unripe fruit on a hooked stalk, and one ripe fruit on an erect stalk ejectingits seeds; nat. size * Unripe fruit of Oxalis Acetosella; x6. * Ripe fruit of Oxalis Acetosella ejecting the seeds; x6. ripe the tissue surrounding them is transformed into a mucilaginous mass. Alsothe tissue in the neighbourhood of the conical stopper just referred to breaks downat the same time, and thus the connection between the stalk and the fruit is loosened.In the wall of the fruit there is a layer of cells which is under great tension, andendeavours to stretch itself out. As long as the fruit is unripe such expansion isprevented by the tense tissue close to the stalk, but with the ripening of the fruitthis obstacle is removed. The fruit then severs itself from the conical end of thestalk and at the same moment t

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