84 THE FRUIT. [CHAP. 



examined the ovary of the flower, and found that it 

 was adnate to the calyx-tube. So ovary and calyx-tube 

 together constitute the pericarp in the Apple. 



Next try an Orange. At the bottom of the fruit you 

 find either the calyx still remaining, or its scar; the 

 peduncle is not sent to England attached to the fruit. 

 On the top of the fruit is a little round scar, left by the 

 style, which soon withers after flowering, and usually 

 breaks off. The Orange, therefore, is clearly a superior 

 fruit, developed solely from the ovary of the flower. Cut 

 it across, and you find it divided into a variable number 

 of cells by membranous dissepiments, each cell answering 

 to a carpel. In the pulp which fills the cells, and which 

 is developed from the inside of the outer wall of the 

 ovary, the seeds are embedded. 



Try a Gooseberry. Like the Orange, it is a pulpy 

 fruit, but from the distinct scaly tuft the remains of the 

 calyx-limb on the top of the fruit, and the absence of a 

 scar at its base, it differs from it in being inferior. Cut 

 across the middle you find it one-celled, and the cavity 

 filled with juicy pulp and numerous (indefinite) seeds, the 

 latter being attached to the sides of the ovary (parietal}. 

 The fruit is a true berry / and the same name you may 

 apply to any syncarpous fruit that is succulent, and that 

 does not open (succulent fruits rarely do) to allow the 

 seeds to fall out, such as Black and Red Currants and 

 Grapes. Raspberries, Strawberries, and Mulberries we 

 shall find are not true berries at all. 



A syncarpous fruit that is dry when ripe, and which 

 opens (dehisces) either by the pericarp splitting from the 

 top to the bottom into valves, as in Horse Chestnut or 

 but partially from the top into teeth, as in Chickweeds 

 and Stitchworts, or by little openings, called pores, such 

 as are found in the ripe fruit of Poppy and Snapdragon 

 is called a capsule. And this name is applied to a great 

 variety of fruits, differing much in size and mode of de- 

 hiscence, but all agreeing in being syncarpous, and when 

 quite ripe, dry and dehiscent. 



Syncarpous fruits, on the other hand, which are dry 

 and indehiscent, that is, which do not open, but liberate 

 the seed by decay, as the fruit of the Hazel, you may 

 simply call nuts. 



