262 PROSERPINA. 



its seeds, in Rousseau's botany, is the only one I 

 have seen which rightly shows and expresses this 

 arrangement. 



14. A Fruit, is either the husk, receptacle, petal, 

 or other part of a flower external to the seed, in 

 which chemical changes have taken place, fitting it 

 for the most part to become pleasant and healthful 

 food for man, or other living animals; but in some 

 cases making it bitter or poisonous to them, and 

 the enjoyment of it depraved or deadly. But, as 

 far as we know, it is without any definite office to 

 the seed it contains; and the change takes place 

 entirely to fit the plant to the service of animals.* 

 In its perfection, the Fruit Gift is limited to 

 a temperate zone, of which the polar limit is 

 marked by the strawberry, and the equatorial by 

 the orange. The more arctic regions produce even 

 the smallest kinds of fruit with difficulty; and the 

 more equatorial, in coarse, oleaginous, or over- 

 luscious masses. 



15. All the most perfect fruits are developed 



* A most singular sign of this function is given in the chemistry of 

 the changes, according to a French botanist, to whose carefully and 

 richly illustrated volume I shall in future often refer my readers, " Vers 

 l'epoque de la maturite, les fruits exhaknt de Tacide carboniquc. Us 

 ne presentent plus des lors aucun degagcment d'oxygene pendant le 

 jour, et respirent, pour ainsi dire, a la /aeon des animaux." — (Figiiier, 

 'Histoire des Plantes,' p. 182. 8vo. Paris. Hachette, 1874.) 



