92 ELEMENTS OF STRUCTURAL BOTANY, 



and if the seeds are attached to a central column, it is 

 free central. 



142. Besides the union of the ovaries there may also 

 be a union of the styles, and even of the stigmas. 



143. A very exceptional pistil is found in plants of 

 the Pine Family. Here the ovules, in- 

 stead cf being enclosed in an ovary, are 

 usually simj)ly attached to the inner sur- 



Fig. i5i. face of an open carpellary 

 leaf or scale, the scales forming what is 

 known as a cone (Figs. 154, 155, 156). 

 The plants of this family are hence called rigs, iss, iss. 

 gymnospermoxis , or naked-seeded. 



144. The Fruit. In coming to the consideration of 

 the Fruit, you must fort he present lay aside any popu- 

 lar ideas you may have acquired as to the meaning of 

 this term. You will find that, in a strict botanical 

 sense, many things are fruits which, in the language of 

 common life, are not so designated. For instance, we 

 hardly speak of a pumpkin or a cucumber as fruit, and 

 yet they are clearly so, according to the botanist's defi- 

 nition of that term. A fruit may be defined to be the 

 ripened pistil together with any other organ, such as the 

 calyx or receptacle, which may be adherent to it. This 

 definition will j^erhaps be more clearly understood after 

 a few specimens have been attentively examined. 



145. For an example of the simplest kind of fruit let 

 us revert to our Buttercup. As the carpels ripen, the 

 style and stigma are reduced to a mere point. On 

 cutting open one of these carpels when fully ripe, we 

 find it contains a single seed, not quite filling the 

 cavity, but attached at one i^oint to the wall of the 

 latter. What you have to guard against, in this 



