CHAPTER XVIII 
THE FRUIT’ 
233. What constitutes a Fruit. — It is not easy to make 
a short and simple definition of what botanists mean by 
the term fruit. It has very little to do with the popular 
use of the word. Briefly stated, the definition may be 
given as follows: The fruit consists of the matured ovary 
and contents, together with any intimately connected parts. 
Botanically speaking, the bur of beggar’s ticks (Fig. 273), 
the three-cornered grain of buckwheat, or such true grains 
as wheat and oats, are as much fruits as is an apple or a 
peach. 
The style or stigma sometimes remains as an important 
part of the fruit in the shape of a hook, as in the common 
hooked crowfoot; or in the shape of a plumed appendage, 
as in the virgin’s bower, often called wild hops. The 
calyx may develop hooks, as in the agrimony, or plumes, 
as in the thistle, the dandelion, lettuce, and many other 
familiar plants. In the apple, pear, and very many ber- 
ries, the calyx becomes enlarged and pulpy, often consti- 
tuting the main bulk of the mature fruit. The receptacle 
not infrequently, as in the apple, forms a more or less 
important part of the fruit. 
234. Indehiscent and Dehiscent Fruits. — All of the 
fruits considered in the next three sections are indehiscent, 
1See Gray’s Structural Botany, Chapter VII, also Kerner and Oliver’s 
Natural History of Plants, Vol. Il, pp. 427-438. 
221 
