CHAPTER XXI 



FRUITS 



285. The ripened ovary, with its attachments, is known 

 as the fruit. It contains the seeds. If the pistil is simple, 

 or of one carpel, the fruit also will have one compartment. 

 If the pistil is compound, or of more than one carpel, the 

 fruit usually has an equal number of compartments. The 

 compartments in pistil and fruit are known as locules 

 (from Latin locus, meaning "a place"). 



286. Tlie simplest kind of fruit is a ripened l-locided 

 ovary. The first stage in com- 

 plexity is a ripened 2- or 

 many - loculed ovary. Very 

 complex forms may arise by 

 the attachment of other parts 

 to the ovary. Sometimes the 

 style persists and becomes a 

 beak (mustard pods, dentaria, 

 Fig. 240) or a tail as in clema- 

 tis ; or the calyx may be at- , 

 tached to tlie ovary; or the 

 ovary may \)v iinlx'dded in the 

 receptacle, and ovary and re- 

 ceptacle together constitute 

 the fruit ; or an involucre 

 may become a part of the 

 fruit, as possibly in the w;il- 



nut and lliekory. and cup 24U. Ikntaria, or loothwort, iufruil. 



of the acorn. The chestnut (Fig. 241) and the beech bear 



a prickly involucre, but the nuts, or true fruits, are not 



(147) 



