ON FRUIT. 233 



1 Mrs. B. The pericarp fits closely to the seed, so that 

 they seem to form but one body ; but they may, thus uni- 

 ted, be considered as so many distinct little fruits, imbed- 

 ded in the soft substance of the torus. 



Caroline. They would be very little appreciated as 

 such, were it not for the delicate flavor of this soft sub- 

 stance. 



Mrs. B. These little grains, though dry, are analogous 

 to the small fleshy spherical bodies which form the rasp- 

 berry ; and the white conical substance which remains 

 upon the calyx of the raspberry, after the fruit is pulled 

 off, is analogous to the fleshy substance of the strawberry ; 

 for they both result from the growth of the torus. 



Caroline, With this difference : in the one it is the 

 torus ; in the other, the berry, or true fruit, which is good 

 to eat. 



Emily. And is not the conical expansion of the torus, 

 on which the raspberry grows, analogous to the axis or 

 stalk which traverses the mulberry ? For these two fruits 

 bear a great resemblance to each other. 



Mrs. B. You are falling into an error to which every 

 one is liable who judges from the appearance of the fruit 

 without having previously studied the flower. If you ex- 

 amine the blossom of the mulberry, you will see that it 

 consists of several small sessile florets, disposed around 

 the axis ; that each of these, after the blossom has fallen, 

 forms a distinct fruit, consisting of the carpel and the ca- 

 lyx : these fruits being fleshy, and situated so near to each 

 other as to come in contact in growing, cohere together ; 

 so that a mulberry, which is in fact an aggregation of sev- 

 eral different fruits, proceeding from as many different 

 flowers, wears the same appearance as a raspberry, which 

 is the result of different carpels belonging to the same 

 flower. 



Emily. There are, then, if I mistake not, no less than 

 four degrees of complication in the composition of a fruit. 



First. Fruits formed by a single carpel, such as the 

 pea or the peach. 



1273. To what are the little grains on its surface analogous 1 ? 1274. 

 And what in the raspberry is analogous to the fleshy substance of the 

 strawberry'? 1275. If the blossom of the mulberry is examined, what 

 will be seen! 1276. Why has the mulberry the same appearance as 

 the raspberry 1 ? 1277. In the four degrees of complication in the com- 

 position of fruit, what is the first! 



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