VII.] FRUIT. 103 



A Fig you can easily get for examination. If cut across, 

 it appears to be filled with small dry seeds enclosed in a 

 succulent pericarp. But such is not really the case. Figure 

 82 shows the staminate and pistillate flowers of the Fig. 

 In order to observe them you must gather a Fig while 

 voung and green. You will then find that the inside of it 

 is thickly crowded, not with ovules, but with these minute, 

 monochlamydeous flowers; the pistillate flowers usually 

 occupying the lower and greater part of the cavity. It 

 follows, therefore, that the pulpy portion which forms the 

 mass of the Fig is a common receptacle, deeply concave 

 and nearly quite closed at the top, bearing numerous flowers 



Fig. 83. Vertical section of Flower of Rose, showing the carpels enclosed 

 in a deeply concave receptacle. 



upon its surface. If you have the opportunity, compare 

 with the Fig the fruit of a Rose. Although rather similar 

 at first sight, they are essentially different. The fruit of the 

 Rose results from a single flower, the receptacle of which 

 becomes more or less succulent and usually red when ripe. 

 Inside are the separate, dry achenes, which must not be 

 mistaken for seeds. The fruit of the Rose is analogous to 

 that of the Strawberry, chiefly differing in the receptacle, 

 which is concave instead of convex. 



Besides the forms of fruit which we have enumerated, 



