126 SEED. 



tied to the name ; for the pulp is not properly a part of the fruit, 

 but originates from some other organ.* 



In the mulberryf and strawberry the calyx becomes colour- 

 ed and very juicy, surrounded by seeds like a real berry. Some 

 botanists, in describing the strawberry, say that what is com- 

 monly called the berry, is but a pulpy receptacle, studded with 

 naked seeds. In the figj the whole fruit is a juicy calyx, or 

 common receptacle, containing in its cavity innumerable flo- 

 rets, each of which has a proper calyx of its own, which be- 

 comes pulpy, and invests the seed, as in the mulberry. The 

 paper mulberry of China, which is analogous to it, is an inter- 

 mediate genus between the two, being, as it might seem, a fig 

 laid open, but without any pulp in the common receptacle. 



9th. STROBILUM, a cone, is a catkin or ament hardened and 

 enlarged into a seed vessel, as in the pine ; this is called an ag- 

 gregate, or compound pericarp. In the most perfect examples 

 of this kind of fruit the seeds are closely enveloped by the scales 

 as by a capsule. The Strobilum is oblong in the pine, round 

 in the cypress, very small in the alder and birch. 



The time for examining fruits is after the flowers have pass- 

 ed away. When you have understood the simple division of 

 fruits we have now given, you will not be at a loss to which 

 of these classes to refer them, when you see an apple, a walnut, 

 a currant, or a pine apple. You may gratify the mental appe- 

 tite by examining their scientific characters. It would seem 

 more rational for young persons to examine the number of cells 

 or seeds in an apple, with a view to a classical arrangement, 

 than to count the seeds with the foolish idea that there is some 

 charm in a certain number, which will throw light upon their 

 future destiny. 



LECTURE XV. 



The Seed. 



WE have now traced the plant, from the root through all its 

 various organs, until we have arrived at that part, which is a 

 link in the chain of vegetable existence, connecting the old and 

 new plant ; if this were destroyed, if the seeds of plants were 

 no longer perfected, what changes would the whole face of na- 

 ture present ! The earth in one year would be stripped of the 

 whole tribe of annual plants; in another the biennial plants 



* See genus Bacca, order 7th of the class Gymnocarps. 

 t See genus Sorose.in the class Angiocarps. 

 J See genus Sycone, of the class Angiocarps 

 ' } See genus Strobilum, of the class Angiocarps. 



Strobilum Proper time for examining fruits Appearances which nature 

 would present if the seed were no longer perfected. 



