FRUIT. 



185 



164 b 



167 



166 6 



The fi-uit is the ovary or pistil arrived at maturity ; but, 

 although this is the sense in which the term is strictly applied, 

 yet in practice it is extended to whatever is combined with 

 the ovary when ripe. Thus the pine-apple fruit consists of 

 a mass of bracts, calyxes, corollas, and ovaries ; that of the 

 nut, the acorn, and many others, of the superior dry calyx 

 and ovary ; that of the apple of a succulent superior calyx, 

 corolla, and ovary ; and that of the strawberry-blite of a 

 succulent inferior calyx and dry ovary. 



The fruit being the matured ovary, it should exhibit 

 upon some part of its surface the traces of a style or stigma ; 

 and this mark will, in many cases, enable the student to dis- 

 tinguish minute fi'uits from seeds. Many fruits were formerly 



