98 Principles of Plant Culture. 
fecundation, it /s wise to mingle varieties in fruit plantations 
rather than to plant large blocks of a single variety. 
Section XI{i. THE FRUIT AND THE SEED 
156. The Fruit, as the term is used in botany, is the ma- 
ture ovary, with its contents and adherent parts; it may be 
hard and dry,as in the wheat and bean, or soft and pulpy as 
in the apple and melon. But in common language the term 
fruit is limited to the pulpy and juicy part of certain plants 
that normally contains or supports the seed or seeds. To 
avoid explaining botanical terms, we use the word in the 
latter sense. In this sense, the fruit serves the plant by 
attracting animals that can assist in disseminating the seed. 
The seed, as we have seen (145), is the fecundated and 
mature ovule, and its normal office is reproduction (16). 
157. Fruit Rarely Develops without Fecundation 
of the germ cell of the ovule (150). Varieties of the apple 
and pear have, however, appeared in which the pulp de- 
velops without seeds. The fruit of the banana is almost in- 
variably seedless. The cucumber, grape and fig sometimes 
develop their fruit without fecundation of the germ cell. 
But these instances are all exceptions to the general rule. 
158. Seed Production Exhausts the Plant far more 
than other plant processes. The seed assimilates little or no 
food, while it removes from other parts of the plant a com- 
paratively very large amount of assimilated food, which it 
stores up in a concentrated form as a food supply for the 
embryo (55). Very many plants (all annuals and biennials) 
are killed the first time they are permitted to seed freely, 
