FRUITS 



267 



304. Collective, or multiple, fruits. The pineapple is an 

 example of both an accessory and a multiple fruit, being 

 composed of the 



ripened ovaries of 

 a number of sep- 

 arate flowers that 

 have become 

 more or less co- 

 herent. Theosage 

 orange, sweet 

 gum balls, fig, and 

 mulberry are 

 other examples 

 of this class. 



305. Dissection 



of a multiple fruit. HB^tt^ffl ^--V^-tiacH^l ..... 6 

 - Get one of the 



H^jr 



dried figs sold by 



the grocers. Look 402 403 



at the small end 



FIGS. 402-404. Multiple fruit of the pineapple : 



where the Skin 402, external view of a ripe fruit, showing the prolonged 



^vifrinof oa f^f Ti/kof receptacle growing into a new plant above, and the scaly 



>rigm BB, 01 Wn, D bracted covering below ; 403, vertical section through the 



part is it a modi- ax i g f a fruit, showing a, the receptacle, with 6, b, the 



? / o Q Q \ fleshy ovaries cohering around it and forming the edible 



IlCatlOn f ( Z O y. ) par t O f the fruit ; 404, a single " eye " or scale, somewhat 



Can VOU think Of re duced, showing the scaly bract from the axil of which 



. the (generally) abortive flower originates. 



a reason for this 



curious, urnlike enlargement of the receptacle ? Is there any- 

 thing about the fig, for instance, that renders it peculiarly 

 liable to be preyed upon by birds and insects ? Could any 

 but a very small insect get through the eye without in- 

 juring the fruit? Could it free itself from the sticky mass 

 inside and get out again without difficulty? Would you 

 judge from this that the caprification of the fig is easily 

 effected (279), even when the fig wasp is present? Can you 

 now account for the fact that over four hundred varieties of 

 cultivated figs ripen their fruit without fertilization? 



