174 :fi5otan^ 



god-mother, or the " Old Woman Who Lived in a 

 Shoe." 



A very remarkable compound fruit is the pine- 

 apple. The flowers of the i^ine-aj^ple are small, 

 growing in a dense spike, guarded by prickly leaves, 

 upon a short, thick stem. When the faded flowers 

 drop off, the ovaries enlarge greatly, becoming soft 

 and juicy, and growing together into one solid fruit, 

 cased in the thick scales of the united ovary cases. 

 The pine-apple seeds are inconspicuous, buried in 

 the fragrant flesh of the ovaries. Thus one large 

 fruit with many tiny seeds is produced from a num- 

 ber of very Small flowers. 



A pine-cone is a fruit similar to a pine-apple in its 

 growth, and a young green pine-cone looks much like 

 a young green pine-apple, except for its crown of 

 green leaves. Both the pine-cone and the mulberry 

 resemble the j^ii^e-apple in being multiple fruits — 

 that is, many ovaries united to form one fruit. The 

 pine-apple ripens into juicy richness, the pine-cone 

 remains dry and woody, its hard-closed scales 

 finally loosen and bend back, allowing the small 

 seeds to drop out. 



Another curiously formed fruit is the fig. This 

 is so common an article of commerce and food that 

 we generally eat it with very little thought of the 

 marvel of its growth. The fig stem expands at its 



