THE FRUIT. 



they may or may not possess. At this stage the ovule has matured into a seed, and the 

 ovariuiu either remains still as a mere containing vessel, or certain parts of it have 

 become fitted to sustain the life of the seed during the earlier periods of its germination. 

 It is to the latter form, as the Apple, that the term fruit is popularly applied ; but, in 

 botanical language, the term still comprehends the ovariuni with its contents, whatever 

 may be the nature of either. 



Fruit, then, consists of various parts viz., the ovary and its contents ; but in many 

 instances there are additions to it, in the form of the remains of some or all of the other 

 parts of the flower. Thus, in the Strawberry and Apple, the calyx remains, and is 



converted into a succulent substance, or the part of 

 these fruits which is eaten ; and in the latter the 

 corolla also remains. The Pine Apple is composed 

 of all the parts entering into the composition of the 

 ovary viz., bracts, calyx, corolla, and ovary. The 

 Orange (Figs. 181 and 19) is an ovary containing 

 the seeds, and a succulent mass, in which the re- 

 freshing juice is placed. On the upper part of this 

 ovary, and at the centre, will be found a circular 

 spot, at which the pistil was formerly attached to 

 the ovarium, and traces of the like attachment may 

 be found upon most fruits ; but in certain large 

 classes, as the Labiata and Rosaceae the style passes 

 from the side, and not from the centre of the su- 

 perior aspect of the ovary. In a few instances only 



251.- in,- strawberry, consisting i s the ovarium absent; viz., in the case of the naked 

 seeds of the Conifer* and Cycads (Fig. 249), and in 



one or two others, in which the ovarium is ruptured, and the seeds escape long before 

 the maturity of the fruit ; but when the fruit has been formed, the term ovarium is no 

 longer applied. 



The structure of the fruit is precisely that of the ovarium, except in the instances 

 in which the maturation of the organ has caused certain malformations ; and although 

 the former is undoubtedly the rule, the latter occurs so frequently that an examination 

 of the parts is at all times necessary. Thus, on the one hand, the number of carpels 

 seems to be lessened, as in the three-celled ovarium of the Cocoa-nut (Cocos nuiifera], in 

 which but one cell and one seed remain in the fruit. Such is also the case in the 

 common Hazel-nut, except that the absorption has progressed a step further, and 

 has left but one cell and one seed out of three carpels and six ovules. In a few other 

 cases the number of cells is at least apparently increased, since new partitions are placed 

 across the ovarium, in order to separate the seeds from each other. 



The fruit, like the ovary, is also said to be superior or inferior, and for the same 

 reasons viz., the adherence of the envelopes of the flowers in the latter and not in the 

 former. It is divisible into two distinct parts the/seed and the pericarp. 



The Pericarp is composed of three parts or layers, one within the other viz., the Epi- 

 carp (a) or external layer ; the Endocarp (b] or internal layer ; and the Sarcocarp (c) or fleshy 

 substance lying between them (Fig. 259). Thus, in the Apple the outer skin is the 

 epicarp, the juicy part of the fruit the sarcocarp, and the tough thick wall-celled cover- 

 ing to the seeds (Fig. 36) is the endocarp. The same relation is found in stone fruit ; 

 and the stony covering of the seed is the endocarp. The epicarp is less subject to 



