ON FRUIT. 235 



Are you desirous to have another curious example of 

 the cohesion of fruits produced by different flowers? It 

 is afforded in the pine-apple. This, which you have 

 doubtless hitherto considered as a single fruit, is the result 

 of the soldering of a number of small fruits, produced by 

 sessile flowers aggregated on an axis, which is the stalk. 

 These small fruits, being soft and fleshy, unite together; 

 but traces of the different fruits are seen on the surface, 

 each forming a small protuberance : the axis of the fruit 

 terminates in acrownofleaves, which surmounts the whole. 



Caroline. But where are the seeds ? 



Mrs. B. Cultivation, I have told you, tends to dimin- 

 ish the quantity of seed : in the pine-apple it makes them 

 fail completely, so that the plant can be propagated only 

 by the crown or by suckers. You may see towards the 

 centre of the pine-apple the vacant cells in which the 

 seeds have perished, and in which they are lodged in the 

 wild pine-apple, whose fruit is less succulent and less 

 highly flavored. 



From the pine-apple and the mulberry you may con- 

 ceive a very good idea of the fruit of the bread-tree, which 

 supplies the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands with 

 food. It may be compared to a very large mulberry, com- 

 posed of aggregated fruits. When the seeds fail, which 

 is the case in the Friendly Isles, the fruit grows to a pro- 

 digious size : when the seeds are perfected, it is in a great 

 measure at the expense of the fleshy part, whose place 

 they occupy, and the fruit is consequently inferior both in 

 size and flavor. This is the case with the wild bread-tree 

 (Jirtocarpus tncma.) 



Emily. You have said that some carpels do not open 

 to shed their seeds : how, then, can these sow themselves 

 and germinate ? 



Mrs. B. Fruits, in this respect, may be divided into 

 three classes. 



First. Those which do not open, and which contain 

 but one, or at most a very few seeds ; such are the fruits 

 of the gramineous family, and of compound flowers. 

 They are distinguished by the name of Pseudosperma, 



1285. What is said of the pine apple 1 ? 1286. -And of the seed of 

 the pine apple 1 ? 1287. In regard to the sowing and the germina- 

 tion of seeds, plants are divided into three classes which is the first! 

 1288. What is the second! 1289. And what ia the third! 



