SrSTFMA TIC roMOl.OGY 



Tin: l^>()T.\M(AL Berry 



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The berry of the botanist is a soft and suceulent fruit having 

 one or more seeds. In pomology these l)otanieal berries are 

 represenlt'd by the p:rape, currant, gooseberry, bluel)erry, and 

 cranberry. Among vegetables, the tomato and eggplant are 

 the commonest botanical berries from cultivated plants. The 

 difference between a drupe and a berry is well illustrated if 

 one compares a plum, the structure of which 

 has been studied, as a typical drupe, with a 

 date, the ''stone" of which is a true seed 

 which must not be compared with the 

 "stone" of a plum which contains a seed. 

 In the grape, the berry is a ripened superior 

 ovary ; in the currant, gooseberry, blueberry, 

 and cranberry it is a ripened inferior ovary. 

 The structure of fruits classed as botani- 

 cal berries are best studied as such in sys- 

 tematic pomologj% but it must not be over- 

 looked that any small pulpy seed-fruit is a 

 berry in the language of the fruit-grower. 

 The pomologist has prior rights to the word, 

 as has been said, and in any but a strictly 

 botanical sense a raspberry, blackberry, dewberry, or straw- 

 berry, is as properly a berry as a grape, currant, gooseberry, 

 or cranberr3\ 



116. Fruit and seeds of the grape. — The grape, in bunch and 

 berry, furnishes characters whereby almost all species and varie- 

 ties may be recognized and classified. Substantial steps toward 

 classification are taken in noting the number of berries in a 

 bunch of gi-apes, the size, shape, and compactness of the cluster, 

 and the number of bunches on a shoot. Still greater progress 

 is made when the size, shape, color, and bloom of the berries are 

 recorded. The adherence of the stigma to the fruit and of the 

 fruit to the pedicel differ greatly in groups of grapes. In the 

 species cultivated commonly in Europe, Vitis vinifera, the 

 skin adheres tightly to the pulp; in the several cultivated spe- 

 cies native to North America, the skin readily slips from the 

 pulp. The end of the pedicel projecting into the grape is the 



F^G. 41. Dorsal 

 view of seed of 

 grape, V. Lah- 

 rusca. a. beak ; 

 b. notch ; o. 

 chalaza ; hiliim 

 and raphe not 

 visible. 



