222 PROSERPINA. 



seed together. But the majority of instances (and those 

 of plants the most serviceable to man) in which the seed- 

 vessel has entirely a separate structure and mechanical 

 power, justify us in giving it the normal term ( husk, ' 

 as the most widely applicable and intelligible. 



6. The change of green, hard, and tasteless vegetable 

 substance into beautifully coloured, soft, and delicious 

 substance, which produces what we call a fruit, is, in 

 most cases, of the husk only ; in others, of the part of 

 the stalk which immediately sustains the seed ; and in a 

 very few instances, not properly a change, but a distinct 

 formation, of fruity substance between the husk and 

 seed. Normally, however, the husk, like the seed, con- 

 sists always of three parts ; it has an outer skin, a central 

 substance of peculiar nature, and an inner skin, which 

 holds the seed. The main difficulty, in describing or 

 thinking of the completely ripened product of any plant, 

 is to discern clearly which is the inner skin of the husk, 

 and which the outer skin of the seed. The peach is in 

 this respect the best general type, the woolly skin being 

 the outer one of the husk ; the part we eat, the central 

 substance of the husk ; and the hard shell of the stone, 

 the inner skin of the husk. The bitter kernel within is 

 the seed. 



7. In this case, and in the plum and cherry, the two 

 parts under present examination husk and seed sepa- 

 rate naturally ; the fruity part, which is the body of the 

 husk, adhering firmly to the shell, which is its inner 



