Pod (botany)

“ Pod roundish, much flattened contrary to the narrow partition; the valves boat-shaped and keeled. Seeds solitary in each cell, pendulous. Cotyledons incumbent, or in n. 1 accumbent! Flowers small, white or greenish. (Name from λεπίδιον, a little scale, alluding to the small flat pods.) —Ours are annuals or biennials, except the last.
[*] Leaves all with a tapering base, the upper linear or lanceolate and entire, the lower and often the middle ones incised or pinnatifid; pods orbicular or oval, with a small notch at the top; the style minute or none; stamens only 2. ”

“ Fertile flower solitary in the middle of the involucre, soon protruded on a long pedicel, consisting of a 3-lobed and 3-celled ovary with no calyx, or a mere vestige. Styles 3, each 2-cleft; the stigmas therefore 6. Pod separating into 3 1-seeded carpels, which split elastically into 2 valves. Seed often caruncled (ours only in §§ 5 and 6) .—Plants (herbs in the United States) , with a milky acrid juice. Peduncles terminal, often umbellate-clustered ”

“ The young people call the same plant touch-me-not, because the plant is, indeed, nervously impatient when its seed pod is touched, and responds with a snap that throws the seeds to a distance of many feet. It is startling, on first acquaintance, to have the seed pod pop—go to pieces—double itself up into a lot of spirals, and throw its contents in every direction. It is fascinating, too, to touch the ends of one pod after another as they hang from the branches in some lowland place. ”

“ Once more, in the pod and seed there are infinite varieties of shape, size, and arrangement, as one may see by comparing peas with horse-beans, or the short, hairy pod of gorse with the long, smooth capsule of the vetch, the inflated globe of the bladder senna, and the twisted, snail-like spiral of the medic. In fact, there is hardly a single particular in which the papilionaceous plants do not differ from one another immensely, except only their peculiar flower. Clearly, then, it is the flower almost alone which has given them their fair start in the struggle for life. ”

“ When the pods first form the seeds are entirely hidden from view, but as they increase in size, holes form in the covering, through which they peep as through a window. The seeds and pod are originally green, but darken and turn blue, and then brown, as the season advances; and the holes, which begin by being small, become larger till they open sufficiently for the seeds to fall out. ”

“ The seed-pod is compressed, often curved, indehiscent and coriaceous, but with sweet pulpy divisions between the seeds, which, as in other genera of the Cassieae, are albuminous. The pods are eaten by men and animals, and in Sicily a spirit and a syrup are made from them. ”

“ O no! Six months earlier still it was snugly lying, with several others like itself, in a green fleshy pod, to the interior of which it was organically attached. A month before that, this same pod with its contents was the centre of a scarlet butterfly-like flower, the bottom of its pistil, within which, if you had split it open, you would have discerned the tiny beans, whose history we are tracing backwards, each imbedded in the soft green tissue, but no bigger than the eye of a cambric needle. ”

“ Only the head and six prolegs of the occupant ever emerge from its case. Dragging its house along upon the plant, it attaches the open mouth of the sack close to the green seed-pod, after which the shell is gnawed through at the point of contact, and the young seeds devoured at pleasure, when a new journey is made to the next capsule, and thus until the maturity of the larva. ”

“ Large pods with small seeds to escape from small holes.—The large ripe pod of the poppy stands erect on a stiff stem, with a number of small openings near the top. The seeds are nearly spherical, and escape, a few at a time, when the stem is shaken by the wind or some animal, thus holding a reserve for a change of conditions. ”

“ You see that the pod is composed of two shells, and that all the seeds are fastened to one side of the pod, but alternately to each shell.
Geo. Is it the same in beans?
Tut. Yes, and in all other pods of the papilionaceous flowers. Well—this is the general structure of a very numerous and useful class of plants, called the leguminous or podded. Of these, in this country, the greater part are herbaceous, with some shrubs. In the warm climates there are also tall trees. Many of the leguminous plants afford excellent nourishment for man and beast; and their pods have the name of pulse. ”

“ Each pod in its turn fires away, hurling the seed babies as far as 10 feet, with an admonition that they creep down into the soil, there to dwell in darkness, silence, and inactivity until the winds whisper to the pines the glad news that spring is coming, and that message is passed along to the seeds under the snow. ”

“ While this is being done, food for the little baby plants to live on while only a day or two old, is being stored up in the seed. In such seed is the tiny beginning of a future plant. The seed ripen in the pod. The pod bursts open and the seed fall upon the ground, or men gather them, and later plant them in the soil. ”

“ Every one has noticed how the sweet-pea pods are curled up when the seeds are shed. This curling takes place just at the moment when the pod opens to allow the seeds to escape. This sudden twisting of the pod flings the seeds sometimes long distances. If the seed were to fall close to [Pg 76] the mother-plant it would find the soil impoverished in certain ways, the mother-plant having absorbed the food materials from it. If the seed can be hurled out of reach of the absorbing roots of the mother-plant, it may have a better chance ”

“ In the case of the pod the “fruit” itself is a dry pea-pod husk, but in other plants the fruits may be very different. Examine a marrow, for example. Watch it in the course of its growth, if possible, and you will find that the marrow flower is one of those with its seed-box below and outside the calyx and petals. As the marrow ripens this swells with the food stored in it, and the many growing seeds, till the flowers are only small shrivelled structures at one end. ”

“ If no bud can be seen in the Pea, the experiment may be tried of cutting off the top of the seedling plant. Buds will be developed in the axils of the nearest leaves, and it will be shown that each is a compound leaf with two appendages at its base, called stipules, and with a tendril at its apex. Buds can be forced in the same way to grow from the axils of the lower scales, and even from those of the cotyledons, and the lesson may be again impressed that organs are capable of undergoing great modifications. ”

“ Any part of the stem may produce them, but they most readily come from the nodes. As a general rule they naturally spring, or may be made to spring, from almost any young stem, when placed in favorable circumstances,—that is, when placed in the soil, or otherwise supplied with moisture and screened from the light. For the special tendency of the root is to avoid the light, seek moisture, and therefore to bury itself in the soil. Propagation by division, which is so common and so very important in cultivation, depends upon the proclivity of stems to strike root. ”

“ All roots exert pressure on the soil as they grow. Explain.
Fig. 51.—Plant growing in Inverted Pot. 30. Response of roots and stems to the force of gravity, or geotropism. Plant a fast-growing seedling in a pot so that the plumule extends through the drain hole and suspend the pot with mouth up (i.e. in the usual position) . Or use a pot in which a plant is already growing, cover with cloth or wire gauze to prevent the soil from falling, and suspend the pot in an inverted position (Fig. 51) . ”

“ This is a capital scheme, for when the pods are dry and unfurled, they silently indicate to the slightest breath of air that they are ready for a flight, and it doesn't take much to carry them for a long distance. As an active boy delights to venture again and again over thin ice on a shallow pond in the pasture, half fearing, yet half hoping, that he may become a hero by breaking through and escaping, so likewise many of these seeds and seed-like fruits spread themselves out, as if to tempt the wind to come along and attack them. ”

“ The laterals are produced within about eighteen inches of the ground, and sometimes assume a vigorous growth, and attain as great a height as the main stem. They produce pods at the first joint above the lateral, and are continued at every succeeding joint to the greatest extremity of the plant. The pods are generally single, but frequently in pairs, about three inches and a half long, slightly curved, and terminate abruptly at the point; the surface is quite smooth, and the color light-green till maturity, when they become paler and shrivelled. ”

“ If you turn the plant out of the pot, you will find that the roots form a tough fibrous mass that have touched the pot all round, and, at the bottom, are closely wound round some pieces of broken brick or flower pot that, in the first instance, were carefully packed so as to afford instant escape to every drop of water in excess of what the soil in the pot would retain without being actually wet. The leafy part of a plant must have light and air, and the roots must have air and moisture. ”

“ Plant of strong and robust habit of growth, like a vigorous-growing Marrow; rising with a stem three feet and a half high, which is sometimes simple, but generally branching at about half its height from the ground. The pods begin to be produced at little more than half the height of the plant; and, from that point to the top, every joint produces single or double pods, amounting, in all, to ten or twelve on each. ”

“ When many pots are required, they may be simply plunged in moss with the same effect. The soil should be simply very slightly moist, never wet. Moisture is sometimes supplied by setting the seed-pot in a shallow saucer of water, or it may be sufficient to simply place it in the humid atmosphere of a propagating-box. Large seeds may be laid upon the surface of the soil in a half-filled pot, covered with thin muslin, and then covered with loose and damp loam. Every day the pot is inverted, the covering taken off and fresh soil is added. ”

“ Whenever we see blossoms of the sweet-pea type on a tree or pods of the same type as the pea's swinging from the twigs, we may be sure that we are looking at a member of the pod-bearing family, leguminosae, to which herbaceous and woody plants both belong. ”

“ The seed is enclosed in a yellowish-brown shell, or pod, which, externally and internally, resembles a pit, or cobble, of the common cherry. About six hundred seeds, or pods, are contained in an ounce; and they retain their germinative powers three years. "They are large and light, and, when sold in the market, are often old, or imperfectly formed; but their quality is easily ascertained by cutting them through the middle: if sound, they will be found plump and solid." They are usually sown without being broken. ”

“ Everything was prepared, and even formed, beforehand: the short joints of stem in the bud have only to lengthen, and to separate the leaves from each other so that they may unfold and grow. Only a small part of the vegetation of the season comes directly from the seed, and none of the earliest vernal vegetation. ”

“ They yield, however, greater variety than the others. This plan of suppressing that part of the pod which yields single flowers in the largest proportion, greatly facilitates the recognition of the single-flowered plants, because there remains to be eliminated from among the seedlings only from 10 to 15 per cent. ”

“ Every incipient shoot is a Bud (12) . A stem continues its growth by its terminal bud; it branches by the formation and development of lateral buds. As normal lateral buds occupy the axils of leaves, they are called axillary buds. As leaves are symmetrically arranged on the stem, the buds in their axils and the branches into which axillary buds grow partake of this symmetry. The most conspicuous buds are the scaly winter-buds of most shrubs and trees of temperate and cold climates ”

“ Don't make the mistake of putting small plants in large pots, thinking that they will be benefited by it. Wait for them to signify a desire for more room by filling all the soil of a small pot with roots. A plant with a small, weak root-system is often seriously injured by giving it a large pot to grow in, as it is not in a condition to make use of all the nutriment in a large amount of soil. ”

“ The Pots being thus prepared and filled up top-full, with clear and lean Sand, you may put or plant therein three or four Seeds of such Herbs that you have a mind to plant, that so if haply one of them comes not to good, the second, third, or fourth may. When the seeds are on this wise put in the said Sand, and shall have been moistened with our Universal Water, the Pots must then be set abroad to the Sun and Air, that so the Seeds may spring up and grow; which seeds, if good, and not too old, will in a few daies time, grow up out of the Sand, as if they had been in any other fat Earth. ”

“ A more common practice, called budding, or inoculating, is to insert a bud of one tree, accompanied by a portion of its bark, into the bark of another, and the tree which is thus engrafted upon is called the stock. By this mode different kinds of fruits, as apples, pears, plums, &c., each of which is only a variety accidentally raised from seed, but no further perpetuated in the same manner, are multiplied, buds of the kind wanted to be propagated being engrafted on so many stocks of a wild nature. ”