FLOWERS, FRUITS AND SEEDS. 69 



perative that at least one plant of each sex shall be grow- 

 ing near enough together to admit of the pollen from 

 the anthers to reach the stigmas of the pistils with the 

 aid of the wind or insects., One staminate plant may be 

 sufficient to fertilize the flowers of several pisti Hates, 

 but the twp sexes must always be present in order to 

 secure fruit and seed. The same rule holds good in all 

 dioecious trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. For fur- 

 ther information on this subject, I would refer the reader 

 to the various standard works on " Strjictu.ral Botany." 



Fruit, in the ordinary meaning of the word, is some- 

 thing different from seed, although, in a strict botanical 

 sense, they are really inseparable, for in many plants it 

 requires both seed-vessels and^seeds to make a perfect 

 fruit, while in others the fruit includes other parts of 

 the flower, such as the bracts and floral envelopes. But 

 the most common idea of a fruit is something edible and 

 different from the seed, although it must be said that the 

 terms edible or eatable are rather vague and indefinite, 

 inasmuch as a fruit may be eatable for one kind of ani- 

 mal and not another, and it may also be edible, pala- 

 table and healthful for mankind in its improved condi- 

 tion, while the same species may be neither of these 

 in its wild or primitive condition. 



In the Peach it is the juicy, agreeable pulp surround- 

 ing. the>. stone, or seed, that becomes the edible part, but 

 in the Almond, which is closely allied, if not the actual 

 parent of the Peach, the outer envelope is dry and not 

 edible, the kernel or -seed, alone being considered valu- 

 able as food. 



In common horticultural phraseology, fruits are sepa- 

 rated from nuts, grain and other kinds of seeds, not that 

 the division is always scientifically correct, but such 

 classification is made as a matter- of convenience, when 

 speaking of the members of each class. For instance, 

 when we speak of <tf snialHrj3ats^_or^ber^es, it is not to 



