34 
UNEATABLE FRUITS 
ERHAPS one day you 
bit into the fruit of the 
rose, and found it sour and 
unpleasant to the taste. You 
may have forgotten that not 
long ago you learned a new 
meaning for the word “ fruit.”’ 
Possibly you still fancy that a 
fruit must be something good 
to eat. So many people have 
this idea, that once more I wish to 
make clear to you that the fruit ts the 
seed-holding part of the plant. 
Whether this part is good to eat or not, 
makes no difference as to its being a fruit. 
The apple is a fruit, you remember, not be- 
cause it is good to eat, but because it holds 
the seeds of the apple tree. 
And for this same reason the pear is a fruit. It is 
the case in which is laid the seedbox of the pear tree. 
This case, when ripe, happens to be juicy and delicious ; 
but it would be quite as much a fruit if it were dry and 
hard, and without taste. 
And so the rose hip is a fruit, because it is the case 
which holds the little seedboxes of the rose flower. 
What is the fruit of the milkweed ? 
All country children know the milkweed piant, with 
its big bright leaves, and bunches of pink or red or 
