166 BOTANY. 



THE FRUIT. 



This name is given to the carpels when grown ; the ovules, 

 in growing, become seeds. The fruit contains two parts, the 

 pericarp and the seed. 



THE PERICARP. 



The pericarp is that part of a ripe and perfect fruit formed 

 by the parietes of the fecundated germen, and containing in 

 its interior one or several seeds. It is composed of three 

 parts the surface or exterior membrane (epicarp), the inte- 

 rior membrane (endocarp), and the intervals between the two 

 (mesocarp). The epicarp often has hairs, glands or stomata; 

 it is easily taken off under the form of a transparent pellicle 

 in the legume of Beans ; it is the velvet skin of the Peach ; 

 it is rarely thick or hard. The endocarp varies greatly in 

 nature, consistency, colour, &c. ; in the legume of Peas it is 

 green like the epicarp ; in the Almond it forms what we 

 vulgarly call the shell ; in the Peach and Cherry it is the 

 bony part of the nut or kernel. The mesocarp is sometimes 

 so fine as scarcely to be distinguishable, while at other times 

 it is thick and fleshy, as in the Apricot, the Peach, &c. 



Fruit are said to be dehiscent when, on ripening, the peri- 

 carp splits open and allows the seeds to be dispersed ; when, 

 on the other hand, the pericarp remains closed throughout 

 the whole of its existence, it is said to be indehiscent. Every 

 carpel is more or less two-edged, one edge representing the 

 nudrib of a leaf, and the others the margins united ; these 

 edges are called the sutures, the former the dorsal, the latter 

 the ventral suture ; to this the seeds are attached in all sim- 

 ple fruits. Fruits are said to be inferior when the calyx is 

 placed on the apex of the germ, and superior when below the 

 germ. 



Class /. Jlpocarps. 

 Simple fruits formed of free carpels. Two sections. 



