226 



ON FRUIT. 



Caroline. Oh, what hard words to remember Mrs. B.! 



Mrs. B. You will, perhaps, be able to retain them 

 more easily if I explain their derivation : carpos is the 

 Greek word for fruit, and epi for upon or over. 



Caroline. That clears up the whole difficulty : for it 

 is easy to understand that epicarp signifies the outside 

 skin which is upon the fruit ; endocarp the inside skin ; 

 and mesocarp, no doubt, means the middle substance be- 

 tween the two. Now, if you will be so good as to tell 

 me the derivation of the word peri, I shall not forget the 

 meaning of pericarp. 



Mrs. B. Peri signifies about or around : so pericarp 

 means about or around the fruit. According to this defi- 

 nition, the seed alone is considered as the fruit ; but, in 

 the usual acceptation of botanists, the pericarp itself con- 

 stitutes the principal part of the fruit. 



A leaf, forming a carpel or pericarp, may be folded in 

 a variety of ways, either cylindrical, or like a cornucopia, 

 t>r doubled a little convex like a pod ; but, however di- 

 versified the form of the fruit, it results always from the 

 manner in which the leaf was originally folded, when it 

 first budded. 



Now, into what sort of fruit, do you wish that I should 

 convert one of these pericarps ? 



Caroline. You speak with the same confidence, Mrs. 

 B., as if you were going to perform the metamorphosis 

 with a fairy's wand ; and make me expect to see it ac- 

 complished, with the same facility that the pumpkin was 

 converted into a coach for Cinderella. However, I shall 

 endeavor to increase the difficulty of your task, by mak- 

 ing choice of a fruit which bears no kind of resemblance 

 to a leaf a peach, for instance. Will it not require the 

 utmost effort of your art to effect this transformation ? 



Mrs. B. Far from it ; for the peach is one of the most 

 simple of fruits : it resembles the pea-pod, in being com- 

 posed of a single carpel, but it is still less complicated, 

 for the carpel contains but one seed the kernel with- 

 in the stone. The skin is the epicarp. Do you not 



1235. How is the meaning of these terms explained from their deriva- 

 tion 1 ? 1236. In the same way how is the pericarp 1 ? 1237. In what 

 different ways is the pericarp folded 1 1238. What fruit does Caroline 

 select for an illustration! 1239. How does Mrs. B. explain the for- 

 mation of the peach from the leaf? 



