2G8 



PRACTICAL COURSE IN BOTANY 



Open your specimen and examine the contents ; what do 

 you find ? From a dried specimen it will hardly be practicable 

 to make out clearly that the pulp of the fig consists of hun- 

 dreds of tiny pistillate blossoms that line the inner face of the 

 receptacle. The little grains usually 

 taken for seeds are really small akenes 

 — the ripened ovaries of flowers that 

 have been pollinated from the caprifig 

 (279, 286). Crush one gently and exam- 

 ine with a lens, or under a low power of 

 the microscope. It is these " botanically " 

 Fig. 405.— Vertical sec- ripe fruits (284) that givc to the dried 

 mhmte flo^w^rf L^ide Jhe Ags of commcrce their plumpness and 

 closed receptacle. their pleasaut, uutty flavor. Why are 



our native American figs lacking in these qualities (279)? 

 Could this defect be remedied? Do you know of any 

 efforts being made in that direction by American cultivators ? 



406 



407 



408 



409 



Figs. 406-409. — Non caprificated and caprificated figs : 406, outside appearance 

 of non caprificated fig ; 407, outside appearance of caprificated fig ; 408, interior of 

 caprificated fig ; 409, interior of non caprificated fig. 



306. Fruit clusters. — Be careful not to confound aggre- 

 gate and collective fruits with mere clusters, like a bunch 

 of grapes or of sumac berries. The distinction is not always 

 easy to make out. The clump of akenes that make up a dan- 

 delion ball, for instance, though held on a common recep- 

 tacle, like the mulberry and other collective fruits, have 

 so little connection with each other, and separate so com- 

 pletely at maturity, as to partake more of the nature of a 



