ITS KINDS. 



303 



bears another pine-apple, and so on : the constituent flowers have 

 through immemorial propagation in this way become sterile and 

 seedless, and all its parts, along with the bracts and the axis of 

 the stem, blend in ripening into one flesh}' and juic}' mass. Few 

 fruits of this class have ever been technically named, at least 

 with names which have come into use. But the two following 

 deserve special appellations, although only the latter is familiar 

 either in ordinary language or in descriptive botany. 



584. The Syconium or Hypanthodium, the Fig fruit. (Fig. 657- 

 659.) This results from a multitude of flowers concealed in a 

 hollow flower-stalk, if it may be so called, which becomes pulpy 

 and edible when ripe ; and thus the fruit seems to grow directly 

 from the axil of a leaf, without being preceded by a blossom. 

 The minute flowers within, or some of them, ripen their ovaries 

 into very small akenes, which are commonly taken for seeds. 

 The fig is to the mulberry what a rose-hip is to a strawberry. 

 (389, Fig. 406, 407.) It is further explained by a comparison 

 with a near relative of the Fig-tree, Dorstenia, in which similar 

 flowers cover the upper surface of a flat peltate disk. This disk 

 or plate sometimes becomes saucer- shaped b}' an elevation or 

 incurvation of the margin. A greater degree of this would 

 render it cup-shaped, or even pitcher-shaped ; from which it is 

 a short step to the contraction of the mouth down to the small 

 orifice which is found in the fig. 



585. The Strobile or Cone (Fig. 660) is a scaly multiple fruit, 

 resulting from the ripening of certain sorts of catkin. The name 

 is applied to the fruit of the Hop, where 



the large and thin scales are bracts ; 

 but it more especially belongs to the 

 Pine or Fir cone, the peculiar fruit of 

 Coniferae (507), in which naked seeds 

 are borne on the upper face of each 

 fructiferous scale (Fig. 661), or some- 

 times in their axils. 



Such a cone when 



spherical, and of 



thickened scales 



with narrow base, as 



that of Cypresses, 



has been termed a 

 GALBULUS, an unnecessaiy name. The galbulus of Juniper is a 



FIG. 660. Strobile or Cone of a Pitch Pine, Pinus rigida. 661. Inside view of one 

 of the scales, showing one of the winged seeds, and the place from which the other, 652, 

 has been detached. 



