30 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



SO I should be pleased to hear from them and I will send 

 a pressed specimen of the new variet\' to any one wishing 

 to see it. The habitat was ideal for the plant and both 

 varieties were fully developed. Where the new form grew 

 in the shade the color was lighter and the marking more 

 delicate. 



Hawley, Pa. 



FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 



Even in these days of Nature-studv clubs, one ma^' 

 occasionally overhear a debate as to whether a certain 

 edible part of a plant is a fruit or a vegetable. Our ideas 

 of what constitute a fruit are expressed pretty clearh' 

 when we speak of a certain class of trees as "frr.it trees" 

 and yet, from the botanist's point of view, a walnut, an 

 ash or a maple is as much of a fruit tree as any other. 

 The botanist defines a fruit as "the ovary brought to per- 

 fection" and we are thus warranted in considering thedr^^ 

 seed capsules of the arbutus as much of a fruit as are the 

 juicy berries of its relatives the huckleberr3^and cranberry. 



Seed and fruit should not be confused. Sometimes the 

 seed is almost the entire fruit as in the dr3' achenes of the 

 dandelion and thistle ; at others it is but a small part as 

 in the orange, melon and gooseberry. This matter can 

 better be understood if we remember that the ovary is the 

 part of the flower containing the embryo seeds and that it 

 often becomes thick and juicy after the flower has fallen. 

 But whether juicy or dry it, together with the enclosed 

 seeds, is the fruit of the plant. 



To make a literal interpretation of the botanist's 

 definition would rob us of man3^of what we now consider 

 fruits. For instance, the strawberry is not a ripened 

 ovar\% but the red juicy part, at least, is an enlarged re- 

 ceptticle with the seeds embedded in it. The fleshy part of 

 the apple and pear, also, are enlarged receptacles that 

 have grown up and surrounded the seeds. Stranger than 

 either of these, is that remarkable relative of the sumac, 

 the cashew-nut, which has a thickened pciir-shaped edible 



