Abstract
ON reading Mr. Duthie's communication (vol. xii. p. 494) on the capsules and seeds of Collomia, I presumed that some one would be ready to indicate the use of the mucilage and threads of the seedcoat; but I now notice that Mr. Bennett (vol. xii. p. 514) supposes that it “still remains to be discovered.” An obvious and sufficient explanation will be found in A. Gray's “Structural and Systematic Botany,” as far back as the edition of 1845. In the later editions, all of them now old, it is twice referred to. On p. 40, after mentioning that these gelatinous threads, or the like, occur on many seeds or seed-like fruits of various orders, it is said: “They may subserve a useful purpose in fixing light seeds to the ground where they lodge, by means of the moisture of the first shower they receive.” And on p. 321, where forms of this apparatus are described, it is added: “This minute mechanism subserves an obvious purpose in fixing these small seeds to the moist soil upon which they lodge, when dispersed by the wind.”
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GRAY, A. Collomia. Nature 13, 85 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/013085d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/013085d0
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