STRUCTURE OF FRUIT. 13# 



CHAPTER III. 



OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE FRUIT OF PHANEROGAMOUS 



PLANTS. 



Section I. 

 Of the Fruit in general. 



When fecundation has taken place, the organs which 

 were destined to effect it, perish with more or less 

 rapidity ; the stamens wither and fall off, in the greatest 

 number of cases ; the petals follow the same fate ; all the 

 sexual portion of the carpels undergoes the same change ; 

 the stigma and style wither and usually fall off; the 

 pistillary cord, or the fibres which go from the style to 

 the ovules, wither likewise, — they disappear either by an 

 evident destruction in the small number of cases where, 

 as in Lychnis dioica, they are free from all adhesion, 

 and, consequently, visible, or by simple obliteration in 

 the cases, by far the most numerous, where they are 

 imbedded in the tissue of the carpels. 



Whilst the truly sexual organs disappear after they 

 have fulfilled their office, the fecundated ovules have 

 taken a life of their own ; they attract the nourishing 

 juices, and are developed with their immediate covering 

 — the foliaceous part of the carpels. The name of Fruit 

 (fructus) is given to the body which results from the 

 ovules transformed into seeds, by the fecundation of the 



