XV1 INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. 
§ 14. The Fruit. 
130. The Fruit consists of the ovary and whatever other parts of the flower per- 
sist at the time the seed is ripe, usually enlarged and altered in shape and consist- 
ence. It encloses or covers the seed or seeds till the period of maturity, when i 
either opens for the seed to escape, or falls to the ground with the seed. 
131. Fruits are often said to ‘be simple, when formed in a single flower ; com- 
pound (or more properly collective), when they proceed from several flowers closely 
packed or combined-in a head. In descriptive botany a fruit is always supposed to 
result from a single flower, unless the contrary be stated. In compound fruits (the 
fruits of several flowers) the’ involucre or bracts often persist and form part of the 
fruit, but very seldom so in simple fruits. : 
132. The pericarp is the portion of the fruit formed of the ovary and whatever 
adheres to it exclusive of and outside of the seed or seeds, exclusive also of the per- 
sistent receptacle, or of whatever portion of the calyx persists round the ovary with- 
out adhering to it. 
133. Fruits may be divided into succulent (including fleshy, pulpy, and juicy) and 
dry. They are dehiscent when they open at maturity to let out the seeds ; indehiscent, 
when they do not open spontaneously, but fall off with the seeds. Succulent fruits 
are almost always indehiscent. 
134. The principal succulent fruits are, 
the berry, in which the whole substance of the pericarp is fleshy or pulpy 
with the exception of the outer skin or rind, called the ecarp. 
seeds are usually immersed in the pulp. _ zs : 
the drupe or stone-fruit, in which the pericarp when ripe consists of two dis- _ 
tinct portions, an outer succulent one called the sarcocarp (covered by a 
skin or epicarp) and an inner dry endocarp, called the putamen or stone 
135. The principal dry fruits are, 
the or akene, including all one-seeded, dry and hard, indehiscent, seed- 
like small fruits, popularly called ‘‘naked seeds.” Such fruits may arise 
from free one-seeded carpels (as in the Buttercup) ; or from adherent or 
inferior carpels (as in the Composite). i 
the witricle, similar to the akene, but with a thin and loose membranous peri-— 
the ak a hard, one-celled, one-seeded fruit like an akene, but larger, and 
usually resulting from a plurilocular ovary, all of whose cells and ovules, — 
save one, become obliterated in the ripe fruit; as in the hazel nut, 
acorn, &c. 
the samara or key-fruit, a nut or akene, having a broad wing at apex or — 
margin : as in the ash. ; 
All the above are indehiscent. 
The principal dehiscent dry fruits are, 
the follicle, a pod formed of a single free carpel, dehiscent along its ven 
or seed-bearing suture only ; as in the Larkspur, the Asclepiadee, &e. 
the capsule, a pod or dehiscent fruit of any compound pistil, whether formed 
from an inferior or a superior ovary. The pyzxis or pyxidium is onl 
a which opens by a circular, horizontal, nearly medial line, cu’ 
its off the upper half like a lid. : 
136. Peculiar names given to the fruit or parts of the fruit in Crucifere, Legu 
nose, Rosacece, Cucurbitacee, Umbellifere, and some other large Orders, will be 
plained under those Orders, 
137. The dehiscence of a capsule is said to be septicidal, when the carpels 
rate at the line of junction; in this case the placente are either marginal, oF 
attached to the more or less inflexed margins, constituting the dissepiments. 
dehiscence is locucidal, when the margins of the carpels remain joined, while the 
dorsal sutures split open ; in this case the placente or dissepiments will be borne in 
the middle of the valve, Septifragal-dehiscence, in which the valves fall away, leav- 
