INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. XIX 



Any two parts of the flower are, 



coherent^ when united together, but so slightly that they can he 

 separated with little or no laceration. Each of the two cohe- 

 rent parts may ho said to he adherent to the other, but the 

 latter tenn is often used to express a closer union than mere 

 coherence. [Some authors restrict cohesion to the connation 

 or confluence of parts of the same whorl ; and adhesion to the 

 connation or confluence of pai-ts of diff'erent whorls.] 



connate, when so closely united that they cannot be separated with- 

 out laceration. Each of the two connate parts, and especially 

 that one which is considered the smaller or of the least import- 

 ance, is said to be adnate to the other. 



free, when neither coherent nor connate. 



distinct is also used in the same sense, but is likewise applied to 

 parts distinctly visible, or distinctly limited. 



§ 15. The Fruit. 



130. The Pruit consists of the ovary and whatever other parts of the 

 flower persist at the time the seed is ripe, usually enlarged and altered in 

 shape and consistence. It encloses or covers the seed or seeds till the 

 period of maturity, when it either opens for the seed to escape, or falls to 

 the ground with the seed. 



131. Fruits are often said to be simple, when formed in a single flower ; 

 compound (or more properly collective), when they proceed from several 

 flowers closely packed or combined in a head. In descriptive botany a 

 fruit is always supposed to result from a single flower, unless the contrary 

 be stated. In compound fruits (the fi'uits of several flowers) the involucre 

 or bracts often persist and form pai-t of the fruit, but very seldom so in 

 simple fruits. 



132. The pericarp is the portion of the fruit formed of the ovary and 

 whatever adheres to it exclusive of and outside of the seed or seeds, ex- 

 clusive also of the persistent receptacle, or of whatever portion of the 

 calyx persists round the ovary without adhering to it. 



133. Fruits may be divided into succulent (including fleshy, pulpy, and 

 juicy) and dry. They are dehiscent when they open at maturity to let out 

 the seeds ; indehiscent, when they do not open spontaneously, but fall ofl" 

 with the seeds. Succulent fruits are almost always indehiscent. 



134. The principal succulent fruits are, 



the herry, in which the whole substance of the pericarp is fleshy or 

 pulpy, with the exception of the outer skin or rind, called the 

 epicarp. The seeds are usually immersed in the pulp. 



the drupe or stone-fruit, in which the pericarp, when ri})e, consists of 

 two distinct portions, an outer succulent one called the sarcocarp 

 or mesocarp (covered by a skin or epicarp) and an inner dry en- 

 docarp, called the piitamen or stone. When there are two or 

 more stones, they are called pyrenes. 



135. The principal dry fruits are, 



the achene, or akene, including all one-seeded, dry and hard, inde- 

 hiscent, seed-like small fruits, popularly called "naked seeds." 

 Such fruits may arise from free one-seeded carpels (as in the 

 Buttercup) ; or from adherent or inferior carpels (as in the 

 Gompositm.) 



the utricle, similar to the akene, but with a thin and loose mem- 

 branous pericarp. 



the nut, a hard, one-celled, one-seeded fruit like an akene, but 

 larger, and usxially resulting from a plurilocidar ovary, all of 

 whose cells and ovules, save one, become obliterated in "the ripe 

 fruit ; as in the Hazel-nut, Acorn, etc. c 2 



