VEGETABLE KINGDOM DIAGBAM 10 173 



that it is this which will become the fruit when the flower has 

 faded. The fruit is in reality only the ripened ovary. When the 

 plant is still in flower, we can perceive some small white points 

 in the ovary, which are the future seeds. Above the ovary is a 

 stalk with a swelling at the top, on which the pollen falls. Other- 

 wise the ovary does not ripen, and there is no fruit, and conse- 

 quently no seeds. 



But all flowers are not so well formed as that of the rocket. 

 Many have no calyx, as the lily and the tulip ; others have no 

 corolla, but only a calyx. The stamens are more or less 

 numerous, and there are sometimes several pistils. Again, the 

 pistils and stamens do not always exist in the same flower, nor on 

 the same plant. The plants and flowers which bear stamens are 

 then called male ; and those which bear the pistils, jind are conse- 

 quently the only ones which bear fruit, are called female. The 

 hemp is one of these plants with separate sexes ; and the stalks 

 which bear the female flowers and which produce seed are larger 

 than those with male flowers and stamens. 



Fruits. When the ovary has arrived at maturity, it becomes a 

 fruit, as we have said. There are a great many varieties of 

 fruits ; some enclose several seeds, and others only one ; some are 

 fleshy or pulpy, and others hard ; and sometimes the fruit seems 

 to consist of the seed only, as in wheat, barley and oats. 



In the apple, the pippin is the seed, and there are several in a 

 single fruit. In the date, the seed is the stone, where there is 

 only a single seed to each fruit. It is the same in the peach and 

 plum ; but here the seed is only the kernel of the stone ; the shell 

 of the kernel forms part of the fruit. 



In the poppy, the fruit is hard and horny ; and is then called 

 the ca})sule. The seeds are lodged in this capsule, which may 

 have several valves or cavities. Beans and peas are seeds con- 

 tained in a capsule with two valves and a single cavity. On the 

 contrary, the fruit of the rocket and the rape, is a capsule with 

 two valves and two cavities separated by a partition. The fruits 

 of the gooseberry and currant are called berries ; and the seeds 



