62 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



the great majority of fruits these three parts are not 

 developed, and all there is to represent them is an 

 envelope such as we find in the shell of the nut, the pod 

 of the pea, and the bag which holds the juice of the 

 grape. In the apricot, the cherry, the peach, and the 

 rest of the stone-fruits, on the other hand, all three layers 

 are present, and in the completest form. The fruit is 

 now called a " drupe," and the family still only a small 

 one which illustrates it so well naturally receives the 

 name of Drupiferse. Very interesting is it to observe 

 how Nature reserves her perfections for select companies 

 of things. 



Theoretically, again, all fruits are referable to the idea 

 of a leaf in its simplest form, as found, for instance, in 

 the apple-tree or of several such leaves folded length- 

 ways, so that the edges meet, and, uniting, fabricate a 

 little box, inside of which the seeds are contained. This 

 is plainly the great principle which lies at the foundation : 

 there are a thousand proofs and illustrations of it, and all 

 that there is besides in fruits consists of some curious 

 kind of appendix. The leaves thus metamorphosed are 

 termed the "carpels," and it hardly needs adding that 

 a fruit consisting of only one carpel, as in the case of 

 the plum and cherry, is the simplest. The five seed- 

 chambers of the apple, constituting the core, come 

 of the combination of five such " carpels ;" pods like 

 those of the columbine and the larkspur, peas and 

 beans, consist, like "drupes," of only one carpel. The 

 groove or furrow down one side of most varieties of 



