NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



fruits of a buttercup (achenes) the wall is not hard, 

 and the enclosed seed does not adhere to it ; in 

 grains of wheat the fruit-wall is somewhat leathery, 

 and the envelope of the seed is closely attached to it. 



Turning from the dry to the juicy fruits, we find 

 that there are two main kinds. There are the 

 stone-fruits, or drupes, with three layers, the middle 

 one more or less juicy, and the innermost one (the 

 "stone") always very hard. Cherries and plums 

 are good examples. Lastly, there are berry-fruits in 

 the wide sense, where the seeds are embedded in 

 pulp, as in the case of gooseberry and currant and 

 grape. 



Besides these so-called simple fruits, each of which 

 represents one seed-box or ovary, there are more 

 difficult compound fruits, such as a strawberry, 

 which is a collection of tiny nutlets embedded on 

 a fleshy dome at the top of the flower-stalk ; or a 

 bramble -fruit, which is a cluster of drupes ; or a 

 rose-hip, which is a collection of nutlets inside the 

 fleshy apex of the flower-stalk turned into a cup. 

 There are others, still more compound, which 

 correspond to a whole group of flowers, such as the 

 fig, which is a collection of fruits within a juicy 

 flower-stalk. The pineapple is another familiar 

 example ; it seems to be a collection of fleshy berries 

 and fleshy scales. 



The True Inwardness of Fruits 



It is easier to name fruits than to understand 

 them, but let us think over a few facts. In the case 

 of juicy fruits, we have to remember that the green 



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