THE FRUIT 125 



which ultimately form it grow, and the new material 

 is at first succulent, being made of ordinary thin-walled 

 cells. When the full dimensions are attained this 

 succulent tissue changes and assumes the characters of 

 the ripe fruit. Two main departures may be noticed 

 in the first the succulence becomes more pronounced, 

 the cells more juicy, and their contents changed by the 

 deposition of sugar, the development of particular 

 flavours and fragrance, or of other less attractive 

 chemical substances. We get thus a class of fruits 

 which appeal to the animal world and whose fate is 

 probably to be eaten. The seeds which are developed 

 inside them are usually furnished with a hard testa or 

 skin, so that they may escape injury in passing through 

 the animal's body. Succulent and hard parts thus go 

 together, though their soft and their resistant parts 

 have not in all cases the same origin. 



In the second departure from the original softness we 

 find a tendency to hardness and dry ness throughout. 

 Sometimes the fruit becomes woody more frequently 

 dry and papery, or resembling cork in its general pro- 

 perties. This type of fruit is associated with other 

 means of dispersal : often endowed with a kind of explo- 

 sive mechanism, so that rupture of its walls is followed 

 by a jerking of the seed for some distance; often 

 furnished with some means of transport, such as hooks, 

 that may attach themselves to passing animals, or 

 floats of various kinds that may buoy up the fruit in the 

 air and enable it to take advantage of currents of wind. 



In some cases the seeds themselves are furnished 

 with one or other of these mechanisms. It is, indeed, 

 often difficult to distinguish between small fruits and 

 seeds when the latter are thus endowed. In such cases 

 they always escape from the fruit before dispersal. 



Various methods of classifying fruits have been 

 adopted, and a somewhat ponderous nomenclature has 



