I] 



DEFINITION OF FRUIT 



promoting the dissemination of the seeds, in various ways. 

 We have then to discriminate at the outset between true 

 fruits and false fruits (pseudocarps), the latter being the 

 true fruit with something added. 



Again, adhering to our definition of a fruit as the 

 matured carpels and their enclosures, it is obvious that 

 a single specimen of a fruit is usually derived from the 

 pistil of one flower e.g. each Pea-flower produces one pod 

 (compare Figs. 1, o), each Plum-flower one plum and 

 so on, and this whether the fruit so produced is true or 

 false. 



Fig. 1. Parts of the flower of a Robinia, including the single pistil. 



But in many cases the " fruit " is found to be a com- 

 posite product, derived by the agglomerated products of 

 several flowers. A young mulberry (Fig. 2) is seen on exam- 

 ination to be a cluster (spike) of several female flowers, 

 a young fig is lined by hundreds of small flowers, and a 

 pineapple is composed of as many fruits, each the product 

 of one flower, as there are rhomboid marks on its surface. 

 Here, then, comes in a new distinction, between Simple 



