472 PART IV. CLASSIFICATION. 



a multitude of distinct flowers situated inside the cavity of 

 the receptacle, and the individual fruits appear as hard grains ; 

 such a fruit is termed a syconus. Again when the ovaries and 

 floral envelopes of closely crowded flowers, as in the Mulberry 

 and the Pine-Apple, become succulent, a kind of spurious fruit is 

 formed which is termed a sorosis. 



Iii other cases, a husk, called the cupule, is formed, which con- 

 tributes to the formation of a spurious fruit : this is formed by the 

 bracteoles and is not developed until after fertilisation ; it may 

 surround either a solitary distinct fruit, like the acorn-cup, or 

 several distinct fruits, like the four-valved spiky husk of the 

 Beech-tree or the prickly husk of the edible Chestnut. 



W hen the fruit consists of one or more monomerous ovaries, it 

 is said to be apocarpous : examples of this occur in Kanunculus, in 

 the Raspberry, where the individual ovaries 

 are succulent, and in the Star-Anise (Fig. 

 286). The individual fruits may be de- 

 veloped in very different ways ; they may 

 be dehiscent or indehiscent, dry or succu- 



r H f lent - 



& When the fruit consists of a single polv- 



FiG.286. FrnitoflZKcium ... .1,1 



onisatum -. st peduncle ; // merous ovary, it is said to be syncarpouft. 

 the separate fruits, each When the carpels of such a fruit separate 

 septicidally during the process of ripening, 

 so that it ultimately appears as if a number 

 of distinct fruits were present, it is termed a scMzocarp : it may 

 thus split into only two distinct fruits, as in the Umbelliferae (Fig. 

 287) ; or, as in the Geraniacese and many Malvacese, into several 

 distinct fruits : each of them is termed a coccus or mericarp ; the 

 individual coccus is generally indehiscent (dehiscent in most Eu- 

 phorbiacese). 



In various multilocular ovaries only one loculus becomes fully 

 developed and bears seeds, as in Valerian, the Coco-Nut, and the 

 Oak ; the others are abortive. It sometimes happens in cultivated 

 plants that the fruit becomes perfectly formed without any develop- 

 ment of seed, as in a particular seedless variety of Grape, the 

 Banana, the Pine-Apple, etc. 



In all true fruits the wall of the ovary forms the pericarp or 

 rind. In some more or less succulent fruits, the pericarp consists 

 of three distinct layers ; the external layer is the epicarp, the 

 -middle the mesocarp, and the innermost the endocarp. 



