Notes and Gleanings. 295 



Mulberries, pine-apples, and figs are mas;ies of many fruits, with a pulpy flower- 

 stalk. The fig is a peculiar form, namely, a hollow receptacle, bearing the flow- 

 ers concealed inside ; and the whole eatable part is this pulpy common receptacle, 

 or hollow thickened flower-stalk. These are all called multiple or collective 

 fruits, being masses of fruit resulting from several or many blossoms aggregated 

 into one body. A strobile, or co7ie, is the peculiar multiple fruit of pines, cypresses, 

 and the like ; hence named conifera: ; viz., cone-bearing plants. 



Simple fruits are formed by the ripening of a single pistil. They are classi- 

 fied as, first, fleshy fruits ; second, stone fruits ; and, third, dry fruits. 



In Jlesky fruits, the whole pericarp, or wall of the ovary, thickens, and becomes 

 soft (fleshy, juicy, or pulpy) as it ripens. Of this the leading kind is the berry j 

 such as the gooseberry and currant, the blueberry and cranberry, the tomato 

 and the grape. Here the whole flesh is equally soft throughout. The orange 

 is merely a berry with a leathery rind. The pepo, or gourd-fruit, is the sort of 

 berry which belongs to the gourd family, mostly with a hard rind, and the inner 

 portion softer. The pumpkin, squash, cucumber, and melon are the principal 

 examples. T\\q p07ne is a name applied to the apple, pear, and quince, — fleshy 

 fruits like a berry ; but the principal thickness is calyx, only the papery pods 

 arranged like a star in the core really belonging to the pistil itself 



Of fruits which are partly fleshy and partly hard, one of the most familiar kinds 

 is the drupe, or stone-fruit, of which the cherry, plum, and peach are familiar 

 examples. In this the outer part of the thickness of the pericarp becomes fleshy, 

 or softens, while the inner hardens like a nut. From the way in which the pis- 

 til is constructed, it is evident that the fleshy part here answers to the lower, 

 and the stone to the upper side of the leaf; a leaf always consisting of two lay- 

 ers of green pulp, an upper and an under layer, which are considerably dif- 

 ferent. 



In dry frtiits, the seed-vessel remains herbaceous in texture, or becomes thin 

 and membranous, or else it hardens throughout. The achettiiun, or akene, is 

 a small, one-seeded, dry, indehiscent fruit, such as is popularly taken for a naked 

 seed, but is plainly a ripened ovary, and shows the remains of its style or stigma, 

 or the place from which it has fallen. Of this sort are the fruits of the straw- 

 berry ; that is, the real fruits, botanically speaking, which are taken for seeds, 

 not the large, juicy receptacle on the surface of which they rest. Here the 

 akenes are simple pistils, very numerous in t!ie saine flower, and forming a head 

 of such fruits. In the raspberry and blackberry, each grain is a similar pistil, 

 like that of the strawberry in the flower, but ripening into a miniature stone- 

 fruit, or drupe : so thit, in the strawberry, we eat tlie receptacle or end of the 

 flower-stalk ; in the raspberry, a cluster of stone-fruits, like cherries on a very 

 small scale ; and in the blackberry, both a juicy receptacle and a cluster of stone- 

 fruits covering it. 



A nut is a dry and indehiscent fruit ; commonly one-celled and one-seeded, 

 with a hard crustaceous or bony wall ; such as the chestnut, cocoanut, hazelnut, 

 and the acorn. In the latter, the involucre in the form of a cup, at the base, is 

 called the cupule. In the chestnut, it forms the burr ; in the hazel, a leafy husk. 

 — Gray''s School and Field Book of Botany. 



