12 Fruits and Seeds 



seeds and those whose seeds are borne in a seed-vessel. 

 It is this seed-vessel which forms the fruit. Although 

 you have no doubt been accustomed to think that all 

 fruits must be juicy and sweet like those we eat, they 

 can equally well be hard and dry ; so that, botanically 

 speaking, a pea pod or a poppy head is a fruit quite as 

 much asjis a cherry. 



When a plant is in flower the young seed-vessel is 

 in or directly beneath the flower, with the rest of the 

 flower growing from it. When the flower fades it leaves 



Fig. 8. Young Apple, (a) With remains of flower ; 

 (6) with flower rubbed away. 



a few shrivelled bits of leaves fastened to the seed- 

 vessel, and if these are rubbed off there is still a mark 

 where they grew (Fig. 8). These marks are very im- 

 portant and must be looked for carefully, for sometimes, 

 when there is only one seed and that is wrapped tightly 

 round by the seed-vessel, it is only by finding these 

 marks that you can be sure you are looking at a fruit 

 and not at a seed. 



The number of seeds produced by a single flower 

 varies greatly in different kinds of plants. If the seed 



