44 



COMPANION TO TROPICAL READERS 



closes a juicy pulp, in which are seeds: Grape, orange, 

 cucumber. Collect four other berries. 

 Expt. 51. Drupe or Stone Fruits. 



(a) The Mango is a Drupe. Cut a mango across with 

 a sharp stroke of a cutlass or hatchet, and observe that 

 the real seed is surrounded by (1) an outer skin, (2) a 

 fibrous juicy pulp, and (3) a hard woody covering. 



(b) The Mango Seed. Cut open the "stone" of a 

 mango and note the real seed inside with its own cover- 

 ings. The part of a mango thrown away, and spoken of 

 as the "seed" or "stone", is, in reality, the seed covered 

 with the third or hard layer of the fruit itself. 



(c) The Coconut is a Fibrous 

 Drupe. Make a drawing of 

 a cross section of a coconut, 

 colouring the different parts 

 and explaining, by compar- 

 ing it with a mango, why it 

 is correct to call it a fibrous 

 drupe. 



Expt. 52. Legumes or Pods. 

 Observe that pods (e.g. red 

 pea, Barbados pride, rattle- 

 bush, butterfly plant) are 

 made of one cell only, and 

 that they possess two seams 

 siiiqua by which they open and 

 Fig. 20 scatter their seeds. Collect 



pods, closed and open, from 

 ten different kinds of plants. 



Expt. 53. Capsules (fig. 21). Collect and examine 

 fruits of the sand-box, anatta, and okra, and of three 

 other plants with capsules; particularly observe any 

 that are split open and have shed their seeds. Kecord 

 the number of divisions in each fruit. 



Legume 



