34 The Romance of Wild Flowers 
what botanists term the inflorescence—the Pear, the 
White Beam, the Service, the Rowan, and the Medlar 
flowers differ but little from those of 
the Apple; but whereas five of these 
have their flowers in clusters (wmbels 
or cymes), the sixth, the Medlar, bears 
large solitary flowers. The flowers 
of the whole genus show an advance 
upon those of the Wild Roses in the 
fact that they provide honey to attract insects 
and have adapted themselves for cross-fertilisation. 
There are other matters in which they also show 
advance. Growing more slowly and maturing wood, 
they can stand alone, and do not need any hooked 
prickles to aid them in climbing; they become small 
trees. Let us look at their fruits. 
The carpels of the Rose were all separate at the 
bottom of the tube; those of the Apple 
were connected by their inner edges, 
and by their outer edges were at- 
tached to the walls of the tube. Now 
with the impetus given to this part 
of the Apple-flower by fertilisation the 
juices flowed freely into the walls of the 
receptacle-tube until it swelled into a 
an globular form completely embedding the 
carpels in a thick wall of flesh. The 
object 1s the same here as in the growth of the 
fleshy pulp round the Rose-hip: to attract animals 
to scatter the seeds. In viewing fruits from this 
point of view, we must keep our minds clear of 
the comparatively monstrous Apples and Pears re- 
sulting from the artificial selection, grafting, pruning, 
