Capsule (botany)

“ The petals are connected with the ring formed by the united filaments,295 and sometimes the petals themselves grow slightly together at the base. The capsule consists of five two-celled carpels, grown together; each cell containing one seed, and each carpel terminating in a rather slender style, tipped with a ball-like stigma. When ripe, the capsule opens naturally, by dividing into ten valves, to discharge the seeds; which are flat and shining, with a large embryo. These seeds are called Linseed in the shops, from Linum, the botanical name of the plant ”

“ The capsule has only one cell, but many seeds which are covered with down or longish hairs, and which are very conspicuous from the capsule opening naturally into two valves when ripe. The leaves of the Osiers and Willows are generally lanceolate, and serrated at the margin, and they are always furnished with stipules; but the leaves of the Sallows are generally much broader, and sometimes roundish; and they are always of a thick velvety texture. Though the number of the stamens varies in the different species, two are by far the most common. ”

“ Some of the species are annuals, others shrubby, and others perennials; and they are all natives of the Cape of Good Hope. The flowers, which are generally showy, have a green, fleshy, tubular calyx, with a four or five cleft limb, the tubular part of which encloses the ovary; and a corolla of numerous very narrow petals, which are arranged in two or more series. The stamens are very numerous; and the capsule has four or more cells, each of which contains numerous seeds. The valves of the capsule open when the seeds are ripe, if the weather should be dry ”

“ The peculiar capsule of the mustard family, or Cruciferæ, [167] is known as a silique when it is distinctly longer than broad (Fig. 224) , and a silicle when its breadth nearly equals or exceeds its length. A cruciferous capsule is 2-carpeled, with a thin partition, each locule containing seeds in two rows. The two valves detach from below upwards. Cabbage, turnip, mustard, water-cress, radish, rape, shepherd’s purse, sweet alyssum, wall-flower, honesty, are examples.
Fig. 238.—Pyxis of Portulaca or Rose-moss. Fig. 239.—Berries of Gooseberry. Remains of calyx at c. Fig. ”

“ The fruit is a two-valved capsule and the very small seeds bear a tuft of hairs at the base. Endosperm absent.—The catkins are situated on dwarf-branches, which in some species often develop before the leaves and bear at their base only scale-leaves; in others foliage-leaves are borne beneath the catkins. The vegetative bud commences with 2 bud-scales which are united on the anterior side into a scale. The capsule opens by the dorsal suture. The seed-hairs spring from the funicle. ”

“ Carpels sometimes only one, sometimes many (4–10) placed in a whorl, either free or united into a gynœceum with a corresponding number of loculi in the ovary; but in all cases each carpel bears only its own style and 1 ovule. The fruit is a berry (or nut, capsule, or schizocarp) .—Mostly herbs or herbaceous shrubs, with scattered, simple leaves without stipules (Petiverieæ; have stipules) . Inflorescences, most frequently racemes or spikes, which in some instances are apparently placed opposite to a leaf, being displaced by a more vigorous growth of the axillary bud. ”

“ The same organ which remains closed so long as it is juicy or moist, splits and flies asunder when dry, thus scattering the seeds in weather most favourable for their success. By an extraordinary provision of Nature, however, in some annual species of Mesembryanthemum, natives of sandy deserts in Africa, the seed-vessel opens only in rainy weather; otherwise the seeds might, in that country, lie long exposed before they met with sufficient moisture to vegetate.
1. Capsula, a Capsule, is a dry seed-vessel of a woody, coriaceous or membranous texture, generally splitting into several valves ”

“ The gynœceum is free at the base of the tubular, or bell-shaped, thin, strongly veined receptacle, which bears the other leaf-whorls on its edge and inner side. Fruit a capsule. No endosperm.—To this order belong both herbs, shrubs and trees. The branches are frequently square, the leaves always undivided, entire, and without stipules, or with several very small stipules, and often opposite. The calyx is valvate. The flower is regular (except Cuphea) and frequently large and beautiful. The stamens are generally incurved in the bud, and the petals irregularly folded. ”

“ Grass-like or rush-like herbs, with small flowers, a regular and hypogynous persistent perianth of 6 similar glumaceous sepals, 6 or rarely 3 stamens with 2-celled anthers, a single short style, 3 filiform hairy stigmas, and an ovary either 3-celled or 1-celled with 3 parietal placentæ, forming a loculicidal 3-valved capsule. Seeds anatropous, with a minute embryo enclosed at the base of the fleshy albumen.—Flowers liliaceous in structure, but sedge-like in aspect and texture.
1. Juncus. Capsule 3-celled (or imperfectly so) , many-seeded. Plants never hairy, in moist ground or water. ”

“ Petals 4 (purplish) , small and deciduous, sometimes wanting. Stamens 4–8. Capsule globular, 2–4-celled, bursting irregularly.—Low and inconspicuous smooth herbs, with opposite narrow leaves, and small flowers in their axils, produced all summer. (Named after Paul Ammann, a German botanist anterior to Linnæus.)
1. A. coccínea, Rottb. Leaves linear-lanceolate (2–3 ́ long) , with a broad auricled sessile base; cymes subsessile, dense; petals purplish; stamens more or less exserted; style usually slender; capsule included. ”

“ This inner mass of cells is continuous with the upper part of the capsule, but connected with the side walls and bottom by means of slender, branching filaments of chlorophyll-bearing cells.
The spores arise from a single layer of cells near the outside of the inner mass of cells (G, sp.) . These cells (H, sp.) are filled with glistening, granular protoplasm; have a large and distinct nucleus, and no chlorophyll. They finally become entirely separated and each one gives rise to four spores which closely resemble those of the liverworts but are smaller. ”

“ Smooth, slender and weak (6–12 ́ high) ; leaves sessile, linear, acute, remotely denticulate; racemes 1 or 2, very slender and zigzag; flowers few and scattered, on elongated spreading or reflexed pedicels; capsule very flat, much broader than long, notched at both ends or didymous.—Bogs, common. ”

“ Prostrate or assurgent, cespitose, usually greenish or reddish, with runners; lower leaves small and distant, the upper larger, round-ovate, cleft nearly to the middle, the lobes ovate-lanceolate and acute, the lower lobe narrower and acuminate; cells large, pellucid; monœcious; involucral leaves about 3 pairs, the innermost nearly three times as long as the outer, cleft 1⁄2 their length; perianth four times as long as the leaves, linear-prismatic or fusiform, thin, denticulate or ciliate; capsule cylindric-oblong; spores purple. ”

“ Pubescent; stem prostrate, rooting at base; leaves short-petioled, obovate-elliptical or wedge-oblong, obtuse, serrate; racemes densely many-flowered; pedicels shorter than the calyx; capsule obovate-triangular, broadly notched.—Dry hills and open woods, N. Eng. to Mich., and southward. July. (Eu., Asia.)
V. Chamæ̀drys, L. Stem pubescent, at least in two lines, ascending from a creeping base; leaves subsessile, ovate or cordate, incisely crenate; racemes loosely-flowered; pedicels little longer than calyx; capsule triangular-obcordate.—Sparingly introduced into Canada, N. Y., and Penn. ”

“ Suborder II. Liliaceæ proper. Never climbing by tendrils. Very rarely diœcious. Seeds anatropous or amphitropous.
Series A. Floral bracts scarious. Stamens perigynous on the usually withering-persistent nerved perianth; anthers introrse. Style undivided, mostly persistent. Fruit a loculicidal capsule or a berry. Leaves transversely veined.
[*] Scape from a coated bulb; fruit capsular; leaves linear.
[+] Flowers umbellate; segments 1-nerved; pedicels not jointed.
2. Allium. Perianth 6-parted. Capsule deeply lobed, often crested; cells 1–2-seeded. Very alliaceous. ”

“ Similar to the preceding; flowers larger (2–3 ́ ́ long) , more delicate and whiter; lobes of corolla and calyx shorter than its tube; slender styles longer; ovary bottle-shaped; capsule long-pointed.—Shady valleys in the Alleghanies, from Md. and Va., southward; on tall herbs, rarely shrubs.
[*] [*] [*] Sepals 5, distinct, surrounded by 2 or more similar bracts; styles capillary; scales large, deeply fringed; capsule capped by the marcescent corolla.
8. C. cuspidàta, Engelm. Stems slender; flowers (11⁄2–21⁄4 ́ ́ long) thin, on bracteolate pedicels in loose panicles ”

“ An annual herb, with a milky juice; branched, hispid, 1-2 ft. high. Leaves 1-2-pinatifid; leaf-lobes more or less cut, ascending, awned. Scapes with spreading and adpressed hairs. Flowers scarlet, 3-4 in. diam. Sepals hairly above. Pairs of petal unequal; filaments filiform. Stigmatic rays overlapping, i. e., reaching or exceeding the edge of the disk. Capsule stalked, subglobose glabrous.
Parts used:—The capsules.
Use:—The milk from the capsules is narcotic and has slightly sedative properties. (Watt) . ”

“ A capsule is a dry, dehiscent (splitting) fruit, composed of more than one carpel or division;
an akene is a small, dry, hard, one-celled, one-seeded indehiscent fruit;
a follicle is a pod formed from a single pistil, dehiscing along the ventral suture only;
a legume is a simple pericarp, opening by both seams.
a samara is a dry, indehiscent fruit, having a wing.
The following are some of the principal kinds of fleshy fruits:—
A pome is a fruit like an apple or pear ”

“ For example, in the poppy the fruit is the hardened ripe carpels which have become quite dry, and together look like a little round box, within which there are many tiny dry seeds. When the box or capsule is quite ripe openings come in it, just below the projecting top, and then, when the weather is dry and they are open, a strong wind may bend the stalk of the fruit and shake the capsule strongly. ”

“ The capsules or thécæ (θἡκη, a case) , a magnified group of which is represented in fig. 11, consist each of an aggregation of cells, fixed to a stalk (fig. 12) ; and along the back of the capsule is a close row of thicker cells, forming an elastic ring, the an ́nulus. When the seed-like bodies or spores (σπορἁ, a seed) are ripe, the annulus becomes straightened from its elastic power, and tears the capsule open, so that the spores are set free and scattered. ”

“ There is do mistaking the effect of such transition; the bright green colour yields to a dark sombre tint which transfuses itself alike over the leaves, the stalk, and the capsule: a sensible decrease is at once observable in the produce, which before long ceases altogether, for the malady completely saps the vitality of the plant. ”

“ It is very common in Bundelcund, it ripens in the commencement of the hot weather, and the capsule is said to be separated from the kernel in a hand-mill. The tree is large: the nuts are strung on thread and used by the natives as necklaces, and they are roasted and eaten as food.
362 Cherayta چرائتا, called also Punsaal. “Gentiana Chirayata, Roxb. Sp. Ch. Herbaceous, leaves stem-clasping, lanceolate, 3–5-nerved, corol rotate, four cleft, smooth stamens, four, capsule ovate, bifurcate, as long as the calyx.” ”

“ On approaching maturity, a tie should be made round the middle of the capsule to prevent loss of seed when the splitting of the capsule takes place, and, when it is thoroughly mature, it should be removed, placed in a flower-pot lined with tissue-paper, and put on a shelf in a dry potting-shed until so thoroughly ripe that the seeds are being shed in the tissue-paper covering. ”

“ While in the preceding class the number of the carpels was usually indeterminate; it is here limited to three and five. In the one, they usually stood around a middle columella or axis, in the other, they form a true capsule with perfect partition-walls or septa, and a single style. The number of the seeds is moderate, i. e. there are more than one, but they are easily counted. They are therefore of mediate size, having no kernels, as is the case in the nuts, but also no granules, as in the berries or poppy capsules. ”

“ The plant is one that lies rather close upon the ground; and the effect of this twist in the capsule is that the seeds, which are relatively heavy, and well stored with nutriment, can never get out at all, unless a very strong wind is blowing, which sweeps over the herbage in long quick waves, and carries everything it shakes out for great distances before it. ”

“ An attractive little plant, with smooth stems, from six to fifteen inches tall, and pretty little flowers, less than half an inch across, growing singly, or in loose clusters, with white petals which are deeply two-lobed, so that they appear to be ten. The capsule is almost black when ripe. This is common in moist and grassy places in Yosemite and when growing in the shade is taller and more slender than in the open. It reaches an altitude of ten thousand feet and is found in the East and in Asia. ”

“ I was shown its glaucous wool-covered seeds, the mode of sowing it, the way by which its young shoots were kept clear of weeds—the plant as it appeared in its snow-white flower, and afterward, when the bursting capsule displays the equally white staple, giving still greater delight to the planter's eye—then the gathering, the "picking" of those seeds, so tenacious as to require the machinery of the "gin;" and, lastly, the packing and "pressing" of the bales, which makes them ready for the dray, the flat, the steamboat, or the ship—ready for transport to the remotest parts of the earth. ”