2 Fruits. [July, 



have exhibitions of the last in the cherry, persimmon, and many 

 others. The size of the fruit is never indicated by the size of the 

 plant. While the majestic oak and maple bear the small acorn 

 and the light samara, the creeping, short-lived vine, of a few feet 

 in length and scarcely an inch in diameter, bear fruits that would 

 outweigh the whole plant besides. 



The effect of cultivation on fruits is almost always to increase 

 the seed vessel at the expense of the seed. Some plants are ren- 

 dered entirely barren of seeds by cultivation, and in others the 

 number of seeds is greatly diminished, as the size of the seed ves- 

 sel is increased. The vine, quince, bananna, and pine apple af- 

 ford examples of the increase of the seed vessels at the expense of 

 the seed. 



When the fruit has arrived at maturity, nature has in all cases 

 devised means by which the seed shall become spontaneously dis- 

 engaged from its confinement in the seed vessel. If the vessel is 

 dry and membranous, and likely to resist decay, she arranges so that 

 the very products of this state, which would render it impervious 

 to the action of appropriate vital stimulus, shall in some manner 

 rupture it and allow the seed to escape. If the vessel is fleshy, it 

 never opens by any ordinary means but its entire decay; if left to 

 natural agencies, it accomplishes, with little delay, the same end. 

 On this account fruits are divided into dehiscent, or those which 

 open spontaneously, and indehiscent, or those which do not open 

 spontaneously, the former being usually dry, the latter fleshy. To 

 the above there are exceptions, in which the seed vessel contains 

 but a single seed, and so arranged that fluids easily pass to the em- 

 bryo, so that there seems no need of the seed's being disengaged, 

 as in the case of grasses, sunflower, caraway, &c., which, although 

 generally regarded as seeds, are in reality composed not only of 

 the seed proper, but also of the seed vessel. 



The seed vessel, or pericarp, is made up of one or more leaves, 

 (these leaves are called carpels,) folded with the upper surface 

 inwards, and with the margins united. This is always the case 

 where the seed vessel consists of one leaf, as in the pea, bean and 

 peach, but when the seed vessel is composed of more than one 

 leaf, the edge of one leaf is sometimes soldered to the edge of the 

 one adjacent, as in the violet, but frequently each leaf is folded so 

 that its own edges are united, as in the apple. The seeds are, in 

 all cases, borne by the edges of the leaf, so that wherever we find 

 seeds attached, we may be certain that that is the margin of a 

 leaf. Hence, if we find seeds attached to the wall of the seed 

 vessel, it is a sure indication that the different leaves are united 

 by their edges, and if we find the seeds attached to the centre of 

 the seed vessel, we may be assured that the leaves are folded so as 

 to unite their own edges. 



