6 



THE BEGINNER'S GARDEN BOOK 



The fig and pineapple are the crowded parts of many 

 flowers, ripening on the stem which held them all. 



Most changes in the form of fruits are 

 made by the wall of the ovary, which is called 

 the pericarp. This changes in all possible 

 ways. With the bean it becomes thin and 

 dry, the pod. But with the gooseberry it 

 becomes fleshy, inside the outer covering. 

 With the peach the inner parts of the peri- 

 carp become most strikingly different, one 

 part being fleshy and delicious, the other 

 stony, to protect the seed. 



Sometimes the pericarp seems to become 

 a part of the seed, its skin, as with the 

 wheat and corn. 



Sometimes the pericarp is surrounded, or 

 partly surrounded, by 

 another covering, as 

 with the burr of the chestnut, the 

 sheaf of the hazel-nut, or the cup of 

 the acorn. 



Fruits often combine many seeds. 

 This is true of the squashes and 

 melons, the ear of corn, and the to- 

 mato. Fewer at a time are to be 

 found in the legumes, or podded 

 plants, such as the pea. The cones 

 of pines and firs contain seeds at the 

 bases of the scales. 



Considering this list of very dif- 

 ferent fruits, one easily sees that the seed does not always 

 come bare and naked from the plant. Indeed, many seeds 

 fall from the plant while still embedded in the fruit, and 



FIG. 5. Bal- 

 sam pod. 



FIG. 6. Balsam pod 

 exploding, scattering the 



