320 



THE FRUIT. 



CHAPTER X. 



OF THE FRUIT. 



SECT. I. ITS STRUCTURE, TRANSFORMATIONS, AND DEHISCENCE. 



581. THE fertilized ovary soon begins to increase in size, and 

 commonly to undergo some change in texture ; either becom- 

 ing dry and membranaceous, crustaceous, or even woody, or else 

 by an opposite change becoming fleshy, pulpy, or juicy : it is now 

 called 



582. The Pericarp, or Seed-vessel. The pericarp and the seeds it 

 incloses together constitute the FRUIT ; a term which has a more 

 extensive signification in botanical than in ordinary language ; be- 

 ing applied to all mature pistils, of whatever form, size, or texture. 

 The fruit likewise comprises whatever organs may be adnate to 

 the pistils (465). Such incorporated parts, like the fleshy calyx of 

 the Apple and Quince (Ord. Rosaceaa), sometimes make up the 

 principal bulk of the fruit. 



583. It may be remarked that a similar accumulation of fleshy 

 or pulpy matter may take place in adjacent organs wholly uncon- 

 nected with the pistil ; as in the free calyx of the Strawberry Elite 

 (Fig. 993, 995), which becomes greatly thickened, red, and jui- 

 cy ; and injthe Wintergreen (Fig. 795 - 797), where the calyx, 

 at first small and membranaceous, and entirely free from the 

 ovary, gradually enlarges after flowering, and is transformed into 

 a red, pulpy berry, surrounding the true fruit, which is a small 

 and dry pod. The pulp of the strawberry, moreover, is no part of 

 the proper fruit ; but consists of the enlarged and juicy receptacle, 

 or apex of the flower-stalk, bearing the numerous small and dry 

 grains, or true fruits, upon its surface. The bread-fruit and the 

 pine-apple are still more complex, being composed of a whole 

 head or spike of flowers, with their bracts and common receptacle 

 all consolidated into a single fleshy mass. The mulberry is a mul- 

 tiple fruit of the same kind (Fig. 244), in which the component 

 parts may readily be identified. The structure of the fig, which 

 may be likened to a mulberry or a bread-fruit turned inside out, 

 has already been explained (395, Fig. 241-243). 



584. Under the general name of fruit, therefore, even as the 



