CHAPTER XXI 



FRUITS 



THE ripened ovary, with its attachments, is known as the 

 fruit. It contains the seeds. If the pistil is simple, or of 

 one carpel, the fruit 

 also will have one com- 

 partment. If the pistil 

 is compound, or of 

 more than one carpel, 

 the fruit usually has an 

 equal number of com- 

 partments. The com- 

 partments in pistil and 

 fruit are known as lo- 

 cules (from Latin locus, 

 meaning "a place"). 



The simplest kind 

 of fruit is a ripened 

 \-loculed ovary. The 

 first stage in complex- 

 ity is a ripened 2- or 

 many-loculed ovary. Very complex forms may arise by the 

 attachment of other parts to the ovary. Sometimes the style 

 persists and becomes a beak (mustard pods, dentaria, 

 Fig. 224), or a tail as in clematis; or the calyx. may be 

 attached to the ovary ; or the ovary may be embedded in 

 the receptacle, and ovary and receptacle together consti- 

 tute the fruit : or an involucre may become a part of the 



163 



FIG. 224. DENTARIA, OR TOOTH-WORT, in 

 fruit. 



