I.] FRUIT, 13 



As the pistil in the Orange is wholly free from the calyx, 

 it (or rather the ovary) is said to be superior, 



9. Gather now another orange-flower; one in a more 

 advanced state, with the petals and stamens all fallen away, 

 and only the pistil remaining. The pistil here is passing 

 into Fruit. The style and stigma have withered up more or 

 less, and probably fallen away altogether, leaving a scar on 

 the top of the enlarged ovary, which has now become an 

 " orange." In the ripe orange, as in the pistil at the time of 

 flowering, the carpels continue to cohere, and their thin 

 membranous sides divide the fruit into many cells. The 

 principal change is due to the great increase in size of the 

 ovary, to the formation of a quantity of juicy acid pulp in 

 its cells, and to the development of the ovules into perfect 

 seeds ^ one or more of which you may usually find in each 

 cell of the fruit. 



If we cut a ripe, plump seed right through lengthwise, we 

 shall find that it consists of a tough, horny coat, the testa, 

 enclosing one, or often two or more crumpled embryos, the 

 germ of future orange-trees. It is so difficult to understand 

 the structure of the embryo in the seed of the Orange, 

 owing to the exceptional circumstance (which, however, is 

 the rule in the Orange) of its containing more than one 

 embryo, that we shall be obliged to go back to the Pea, or 

 some other pea-flower, the seeds of which contain but a 

 single embryo. Take a Pea, and, if hard, soften it by 

 soaking it overnight, or by boiling it for a few seconds, so 

 that you may strip off the testa enclosing the embryo. But 

 before doing so, observe, first, the black spot on the side of 

 the seed. This indicates the part by which the seed was 

 attached to the fruit-carpel {pericarp) in which it was 

 enclosed ; it is the scar left on its separation from it. It 

 is called the hilum. On careful examination you may 



