HIDE AXD SEEK. 



lOI 



botanical contrivance ; although their general mechani- 

 cal structure reminds us of the fig, for the bright red, 

 soft, and somewhat sweet objects we see so conspicu- 

 ously in the winter time are the 

 altered calyx-tubes. The hairy ob- 

 jects within are fruits ; each contains 

 a seed ; and when birds devour the 

 succulent hip (which does not pro- 

 perly ripen until wintry weather has 

 been experienced, and the insect 

 and other food of birds is therefore 

 scarcer), they consume the achenes 

 within, or otherwise carry them off fig. 47- — Rose fruit 



... . or hip ; c, scarlet 



adhermg by their hairy exteriors to caiyx-tube ; /r, true 



.1 . ■, r , 1 • i 1 1 fruits inside. 



the sides 01 their mouths — anyhow, 



to be dropped at a distance from the parent shrub. 



Apples, Pears, and Medlars had best be studied 

 in the wild state, or in those species which are be- 

 lieved to approach that condition, as in the Crab- 

 Apple and the Service-tree. Then we shall see that 

 our modern fruits are merely a fleshy growth of the 

 same calyx-tubes, until eventually they have become 

 quite attached to the ovary. Of course, in the apples 

 and pears of our gardens, their fleshy growth has been 

 further exaggerated and developed, and its quality 

 and flavour improved. But when one of these fruits 

 is cut across, we see the horny carpels of the ovary 

 containing the seeds or " pippins." What a contrast 

 in the behaviour of the calyx in these fruits and in 



