CHAPTER X 



CARPOLOGY: FUNCTIONS AND STRUCTURE OF THE FRUIT 

 FRUCTIFICATION 



Fructification and its Objects, — The changes effected by fertiHzation 

 extend to all parts of the flower and even to other parts of the plant. 

 A consideration of the objects of the process will prepare us to under- 

 stand the nature of the changes. The objects are (1) the production 

 and maturing of one or more seeds, including provisions for their pro- 

 tection and nourishment throughout the process, together with the 

 nourishment of the parts w^iich thus protect them; (2) provisions for 

 their transfer, still enclosed in their container, to a suitable place 

 for germination and the fixation of the latter there, or (3) provisions for 

 their exit from such container and (4) their transfer after such exit to 

 the place of germination and their fixation there. The combined pro- 

 cesses connected with the attainment of these objects is Fructification, 

 and the product thereof is the Fruit. 



Fructification Results in the Death of Some Parts, the Stimulation of 

 Others. — It is clear that the energies of the plant should not l)e called 

 for in the further development or preservation of any parts of the flower 

 which .are not serviceable as a part of the fruit in the attainment of 

 the above-named objects, unless possibly they may possess some other 

 function foreign thereto, as, for instance, the action of the stamens of a 

 flower in which fructification has already begun, in fertilizing the ovules 

 of some other flower. We should, therefore, look (a) for the disap- 

 pearance or death of all floral parts not thus serviceable, and (6) for 

 the stimulation and development of those which are. That the first of 

 these two objects is an immediate result of fertilization is strikingly 

 and unhappily illustrated in the behavior of ornamental flowers in which 

 the latter process is allowed to take place. Those who produce for 

 the market the handsome and expensive flowers of orchids are obliged 

 to carefully exclude insects from their greenhouses. Valuable flowers 

 which, without fertilization, would last for several weeks, wither and 

 die within a few days, or even hours, after such process has occurred. 

 That the accomi)lishment of the second-named object is no less imme- 

 diate is apparent upon considering the morphology of the fruit. 



