CHAPTER XIV 



FRUIT. 



After the fertilization of the flower, the calyx, pe- 

 tals, stamens, and style, usually begin to fade. The 

 germen however remains attached to the plant, contin- 

 ues to expand until it reaches maturity, and then it 

 constitutes the Fruit. This term, which in common 

 language is employed in a more limited sense, denotes 

 seed vessels of every description, and seeds, whether 

 naked or enclosed in a pericarp. It is either simple, as 

 in the Currant ; or multiplicate, as in the Labiate plants. 

 Its covering is merely a thin epidermis, as in the Apple, 

 a bark, as in the Orange, or a shell, as in the Filbert. 



1. SEED VESSELS. 



The Pericarp or seed vessel is designed to convey 

 nourishment to the seed, to enclose and defend it from 

 injury, while recent, and when ripe to liberate, and of- 

 ten to scatter its contents to a distance. 



It often separates spontaneously into several distinct 

 portions or valves, whose number, though constant in 

 the same species, is various in different plants. When 

 the valves are detached, we find a central pillar or col- 

 umn, which is denominated the axis of the fruit, and 

 is sometimes the receptacle of the seed. These valves 

 when united, either form one entire cavity, as in the 

 Garden Pink ; or several, as in the Stramonium, whose 

 seed vessels are divided by several transverse partitions, 



