STRUCTURE OF FRUIT. 175 



fruit, empty cells which indicate the abortion of the 

 seeds, and externally kinds of scale, which are the per- 

 sistent remains of the bracts and lobes of the perigone ; 

 the whole is crowned with a tuft of leaves, which are 

 nothing but foliaceous bracts devoid of flowers, which 

 spread out at the top of the spike, as in Eucomis, and 

 the development of which is favoured by the abortion of 

 the seeds of the lower flowers. 



The fruits of the Coniferae present phenomena very 

 analogous to the preceding. If we examine the female 

 cone of a Fir, we find small flowers sessile in the axils 

 of the bracts, and disposed in a spike along an axis ; 

 after flowering, the flowers which have the perigone 

 adherent to the ovary ai'e each transformed into a kind 

 of nut, or samara, and the bract, which grows much, 

 completely covers the fruit ; this assemblage has re- 

 ceived the name of Cone; its axis is sometimes acci- 

 dentally prolonged into a leafy branch (PI. 16, fig. 4), 

 which is similar to what constantly takes place in the 

 Pine-apple. The cones of the Proteaceae, and the 

 follicular heads of the Hop, present an analogous organ- 

 ization; these kinds of cones differ from those of 

 Magnolia, or the Tulip- tree, in proceeding from the 

 aggregation of the carpels of several flowers in a spike, 

 whilst in the Magnoliaceae, they are formed by the 

 aggregation of several carpels in a spike proceeding from 

 a single flower. 



But there are some Coniferae where the phenomenon 

 is complicated in consequence of the form or texture of 

 the organs. Thus, in the Pine, we find the same 

 general disposition ; but the bracts, after flowering, 

 enlarge and become very thick at the top, so as to form 

 a close mass, which only opens shortly before their 

 separation ; the Cypress and Thvja have these same 

 bracts less numerous, and so dilated at the top that they 



