VII.] FRUIT. 101 



are early obliterated, or, rather, rudimentary from their origin, 

 so that the fruit is one-celled and one-seeded : the triangular 

 form of the fruit still indicates its tricarpellary character. A 

 tranverse section through the entire fruit shows a thick outer 

 layer of the pericarp, fibrous in texture, and a thin bony 

 inner layer (the shell). The cavity of this inner layer {e}ido- 

 carp) is occupied by the seed. The seed is hollow, con- 

 sisting of a uniform layer of solid albumen closely applied 

 over the inner surface of the endocarp, with a portion 

 (the milk) unconsolidated in the cavity, and a minute embryo 

 occupies a little cell in the albumen at the base of the nut. 



A syncarpous fruit that is dry when ripe, and which opens 

 [dehisces) — either by the pericarp splitting from the top to the 

 bottom into valves^ as in Tea or Camellia, and Cotton ; or 

 but partially from the top into teeth^ as in Chickweeds and 

 Pinks ; or by little openings called pores, such as are found 

 in the ripe fruit of Poppy — is called a capsule. And this 

 name is applied to a great variety of fruits, differing much 

 in size and mode of dehiscence, but all agreeing in being 

 syncarpous, and, when quite ripe, dry and dehiscent. 



Syncarpous fruits, on the other hand, which are dry and 

 indehiscefit — that is, which do not open, but liberate the seed 

 by decay, as the fruit of the Oak or of the 

 Buckwheat {PolygoJium) — you may simply 

 call mtts. 



In Ranunculus a number of distinct car- 

 pels collectively form the fruit, which conse- 

 quently we have called apocarpous. Each 

 carpel is dr}^, one-seeded, and indehiscent. 

 Such fruit-carpels are called achenes. fig^ CoUec- 



With regard to the Mulberry, the fruit of M^ibei?^' °' 

 the Mulberr}'-tree, you have here the produce 

 not of a single flower, but of a short, dense spike of pistillate 



