SECT. V. THE FRUIT. 



sitely coloured. When the blossom begins to fade, Coloured. 

 and the colours of the corolla to decay, the beauty 

 of the plant seems to have departed with the de- 

 parting flower. But the beauties of the departing 

 flower are often more than compensated in the rich 

 and mellow colouring of the fruit. The ripened * 

 tints of autumn are found to be equally pleasing 

 with the bloom of spring, and the colours of the 

 Peach and Apricot, the Plum and Cherry, are in 

 nothing ^inferior to the blossom that preceded 

 them. 



If a single flower produces only a single seed, Single, 

 or several seeds contained in a single seed-vessel, 

 the fruit is said to be single ; but when it produces 

 many seeds, whether detached or united, except 

 by one style, the fruit is then said to be multipli- 

 cate. But the number of the fruit produced by 

 an individual flower is not always the same even 

 in the same species ; because all the original ovaries 

 are not always impregnated. If the fruit is pro- 

 duced in pairs, as in umbelliferous plants ; or in 

 threes, as in the Lily ; or in fours, as in the Ver- 

 ticillate plants ; or in fives, as in the Geranium ; 

 or in an indefinite number from the same flower, 

 as in the Rose and Ranunculus ; it is then said to 

 be conjugate, or compound. 



The conjugate or compound fruit is either lobed Conju* 

 or divisible. It is divisible if in its immature state gate ' 

 it presents a uniform and integral appearance, but 

 afterwards separates into distinct portions, as in 



