the table. 



THE PROPORTION OF PARTS IN FRUITS 299 



This table illustrates the relative proportions of the pericarp Remarks on 

 and the seeds in the weight of the full-grown living fruit, or, 

 as we might term them, the moist relations. We should be 

 handling a subject bristling with difficulties if we attempted at 

 this stage of the inquiry to draw any inferences except such as 

 are of a loose general nature from these data. Yet, scanty 

 as they may seem, these numerical results represent a great 

 amount of labour, since in several cases the ground was made 

 secure by methodical observation of the fruit in its several 

 stages. For instance, some scores of the fruits of the two 

 species of Iris were examined, and some dozens of visits of 

 observation were made, in the different seasons of three 

 successive years, before I was satisfied with my investigation 

 of the fruits and could safely fix upon the full-grown moist 

 condition. An experience thus gained could be extended to 

 fruits of a similar type ; but it would be unwise to make such 

 an examination of the relative proportion of parts in a fruit 

 without some acquaintance, either direct or indirect, with the 

 fruit in its various stages on the plant. The more one is 

 acquainted with the fruit and its parts and with the different 

 states of its development, the more secure will be the ground 

 on which to base a general conclusion. 



One notices that the sixty-four fruits here named princi- 

 pally consist of legumes, capsules, and berries, the drupes 

 being not so well represented. About one-sixth comprises 

 fruits, all of them either berries or drupes, where the weight 

 of the pericarp exceeds 90 per cent., or the weight of the 

 seeds is less than 10 per cent of the entire fruit. The 

 bulk of the fruits, where the seed-weight ranges from 

 10 to 60 per cent., and that of the pericarp from 90 to 40 

 per cent, of the entire fruit, is mostly made up of legumes, 

 capsules, and berries ; and there is not much to choose 

 between them in their arrangement in the scale. With 

 drupes and berries " size," as interpreted here by " weight," 

 does not appear to count for much in determining the place 

 in the scale ; whilst with legumes and capsules the largest and 



