CHAPTER XXIII 



FRUITS 



310. 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, although 

 one or more of the compartments may be suppressed as the 

 parts grow. The compartments in pistil and fruit are known 

 as locules (from Latin locus, meaning "a place"), or cells. 



311. The simplest kind of 

 fruit is a ripened 1-loculed 

 ovary. The first stage in com- 

 plexity is a ripened 2- or many- 

 loculed ovary. Very complex 

 forms may arise by the attach- 

 ment of other parts to the 

 ovary. Sometimes the style 

 persists and becomes a beak 

 (mustard pods, dentaria, Fig. 

 266), or a tail as in clematis; 

 or the calyx may be attached 

 to the ovary; or the ovary 

 may be imbedded in the re- 

 ceptacle, and ovary and recep- 

 tacle together constitute the 

 fruit; or an involucre may be- 

 come a part of the fruit, as 

 possibly in the walnut and hickory, and cup of the acorn. 

 The chestnut (Fig. 267) and the beech bear a prickly invo- 



(155) 



266. Dentaria, or tOOthwort, in fruit. 



