86 



THE FRUIT. 



[CHAP. 



The Raspberry is almost identical with the Blackberry, 

 which we now find, like the Strawberry, has nothing to 

 do with the true berry. 





FIG. 58. Fruit of Blackberry. 



FIG. 59. Single fruit-carpel 

 (drupel) of same, containing 

 one pendulous seed. 



With regard to the Mulberry, the fruit of the Mulberry- 

 tree. You have here the produce not of a single flower, 

 but of a short, dense spike of pistillate flowers, each 

 flower consisting of a perianth of four leaves in two pairs, 

 enclosing the pistil, which is superior, and crowned by a 

 bifid stigma. Now, as the pistil ripens and the seeds 



FIG. 60. Collective fruit of Mulberry. 



mature, the persistent perianth-leaves become very suc- 

 culent and juicy ; and it is to these organs, thus altered 

 in texture, that the Mulberry owes such value as it pos- 

 sesses as an eatable fruit. The Mulberry, therefore, differs 

 from all the so-called berries which we have examined as 

 yet, in the circumstance that it results not from a single 



