Fruits 



145 



grow and fill the cavities as the fruit ripens. They make the 

 juicy part of the fruit. 



Botanists confess that they do not know how an apple is 

 made. A young apple shows five carpels surrounded by a 

 green cup. This cup grows and ripens with the ovaries. A 

 rose hip has a fruit built on a similar plan, only there are more 

 carpels. The cup may be the lower part of the calyx or the 

 hollow receptacle ; or the receptacle may line the calyx. What 

 other fruits are like the apple ? It is called a pome. 



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Fig. 162. — I. Longitudinal section through the hypanthodium of a fig, exposing the 

 flowers in its interior; II. a piece greatly magnified, with five female flowers; 

 ^, pistil ; ^, perianth. (From Thome and Bennett's "Structural and Physiological 

 Botany.") 



By our definition of a berry, a tomato, a kalabas, a grape, 

 and an orange are berries, but a strawberry, a blackberry, and 

 a mulberry are not. This seems like a study of plants " through 

 a looking-glass." 



The pomegranate has a two-storied fruit. If you cut across 

 the fruit very low down you will find three chambers with 

 seeds borne at the centre ; higher up a cross section will show 

 five or more chambers where the seeds are borne in the outer 

 edge. When the fruit ripens the bright red calyx takes part 

 in its formation. 



