THE AXGIOSPERMAE 



1^2 



:)^3 



compound structures as "false fruits", a term which is open to objection, 

 since thev are no more false fruits than an akene is a false seed, or any 

 other plant structure in which cohesion of ditTerent organs has occurred. 

 Moreover the false fruits fulfil exactly the same biological functions as the 

 fruits which consist only of gynoecial tissues. All the parts concerned 

 contribute to the same end of protecting, nourishing and ultimately of 

 dispersing the contained seeds. These false fruits are however of such 

 various construction that it is not easy to include them in a classification 

 of fruits, except as a special class, so we shall consider them apart, though 

 with the reservation that the custom is not logically defensible and, in the 

 case of berries in particular, a matter only of convention. 



It is generally said that the fruit, considered simply as a structure 

 enclosing the seeds, is peculiar to the Angiosperms and that it arises after 

 fertilization, vet neither statement is wholly correct. The berry oijiiniperus 

 encloses its seeds more effectively than does the open ovary of Reseda, 

 while in Jefjersonia and Leontice among the Berberidaceae, the ovules burst 

 out of the carpels and complete their ripening unenclosed. Furthermore, 

 fruits may develop to perfect formation without any fertile seed being 

 formed, the phenomenon known as parthenocarpy. 



Under this general title several difi^erent conditions are included. In 

 the first place there is a natural or autonomous parthenocarpy , which implies 

 the development of the complete fruit without pollination. The most 

 outstanding example of this is the Banana (Fig. 1390). The basal flowers 



Fig. 1390. — A " hand" of youn;^ Bananas formed from the 

 parthenocarpic female flowers at the base of the inflor- 

 escence. The remains of the perianths and the massive 

 stjles and stigmas are attached to the fruits. 



