ORGANOGRAPHY AND GLOSSOLOGY. 



103 



decay ; but the ovarium, sometimes the calyx, and 

 other parts continue to grow, and ultimately assume a 

 very different appearance from what they possessed in 

 the flower. This altered condition of these parts is 

 termed the " fruit." In many cases, the fruit is not 

 ripened unless the ovula are subjected to the fertilising 

 influence of the pollen ; but if this process be com- 

 pleted, then these bodies undergo certain remark- 

 able changes, and pass to the condition of " seeds." 

 Certain fruits, however, will ripen freely enough, al- 

 though they produce no seed, as some varieties of 

 oranges, grapes, pineapples, &c. 



(106.) Pericarp. The part of the fruit immedi- 

 ately investing the seed, and which originally formed 

 an ovarium, becomes the " pericarp." When the 

 carpels are separate, the fruit is termed " apocarpous ;" 

 but when composed of several adhering carpels, it is 

 said to be " syncarpous." The pod of a common pea, 

 is a familiar example of a simple pericarp, with a 

 structure not very dissimilar to that of a leaf folded 

 longitudinally inwards, with the seeds attached along 

 the margins, united and forming a swollen placenta. 

 De Candolle has given a figure, in his "-Memoir on 



10.5 



the Leguminosae," of a monstrosity, where the pericarps 



