THE AiMERICAN BOTANIST. 31 



receptacle the size of an egg but which does not surround 

 the seed. The latter is found at the apex just outside of 

 the receptacle as if the stem with the seed upon it had 

 grown so rapidly that the receptacle could not overtake 

 it. It is likely, therefore, that we shall have to modify the 

 botanist's definition somewhat. It is certain that the 

 receptacle would not increase in size if the ovary and seeds 

 were not developing. We shall find it more in harmony 

 with the facts to consider the receptacle part of the fruit, 

 else the apple would come dangerously near being a vege- 

 table ! 



The housewife is likely to call cucumbers, squashes, 

 beans and peas vegetables, but the botanist ranks them 

 as fruits. Corn and tomatoes, also, are fruits ; but car- 

 rots, turnips, artichokes and onions are barred. A capti- 

 ous critic may insist that the definition onl^' holds good 

 one wa\% for while beets, potatoes and lettuce are not, and 

 •never can be, fruits, all fruits are vegetables in the sense 

 that the3' belong to the plant kingdom. But regardless 

 of the critic we shall be warranted in considering as a 

 fruit, the structures resulting from any pollinated flower. 



According to the botanist, the blackberry and rasp- 

 berry' are not single fruits but clusters of fruits. The pine- 

 apple, too, is a fruit cluster. The fig, hov^^ever, must be 

 classed as a vegetable, for it is not an enlarged receptacle 

 nor 3'et a fleshy ovary but the thickened and hollow tip of 

 a branch bearing the flowers and fruits on its inner surface. 

 — Willard N. Clute in The Amateur Naturalist. 



