AGGREGATE AND COLLECTIVE FRUITS 245 



is very leathery. This special kind of berry is some- 

 times called a pome. Again the melon and cucumber 

 have thick rind, and the juiciness of the mesocarp 

 is due to the placentas (which become very large 

 and watery). This fruit is sometimes called a pepo. 

 In the Orange, on the other hand, the juiciness is 

 due to the formation of juicy hairs between the 

 seeds, while in the Litchee the fleshiness of the berry 

 is due to the aril which grows on and surrounds the 

 seed. 



Again the Custard-apple and the Bullock's-heart 

 (ANONA) consist of a number of separate fleshy carpels 

 each with a seed, and is thus an aggregate of berries. 

 The Raspberry and Bramble (RUBUS), consist also of a 

 number of fleshy carpels, but each has inside it a 

 stone or pyrene enclosing a seed, so that the fruit 

 is an aggregate of drupes. The fruit of the Straw- 

 berry consists of a fleshy thalamus with a number 

 of achenes or nuts on it. That of ANACARDIUM the 

 Cashew-nut, is a fleshy pedicel with only one nut 

 on it. 



In all these cases the fruit as one sees it, is pro- 

 duced from one flower. But in MORINDA and in the 

 fig and Jak-fruit trees, a large number of flowers grow 

 so close together that they form one mass, and the 

 resulting fruit is the product, not of one but of many 

 flowers. To distinguish this kind of fruit from the 

 aggregate berries or drupes of the Custard-apple or 

 the bramble, it is termed a collective fleshy fruit. 



In some cases the fruit is more or less fleshy till 

 nearly ripe and then becomes dry or woody. Thus 

 the separate carpels of MICHELIA are fleshy at first* 



