78 



now PLANTS ARE PUOPAGATED. 



growing vciy thick and fleshy, makes the whole eatable part or flesh of the fruit 

 in the haw and tlie quince. The real seed-vessels in the quince (Fig. 201), 

 apple (Fig. 200), and the like, consist of the five thin, parchment- 

 like cells of the core, containing the seeds. In the quince, all the 

 flesh is calyx. But in the pear and apple the flesh of the core, 

 viz. all inside of the circle of greenish dots which are seen on cut- 

 ting the apple across (Fig. 200), belongs to the receptacle of the 

 flower, which here rises so as to surround the real seed-vessels. 

 Cutting the apple lengthwise, these dots come to view as slender 

 greenish lines, separating what belongs to the core from what be- 

 longs to the calyx : they are the vessels which in the blossom 

 belong to the petals and the stamens above. In the haw, the cells 

 become thick and stony, and so form a kind of 



226. StOlie-Fruit or Drupe. Plums, cherries, and peaches (Fig. 

 202 ) are the commonest and best examples of the stone-fruit. It 

 is a fruit in wdiich the outer part becomes 

 fleshy or pulpy, like a bei'ry, while the 

 inner part becomes hard or stony, like a 

 nut. So the Stone (or Putamen, as the botanist terms it) 

 does not belong to the seed, but to the fruit. It has the 

 seed in it, with coats of its own. 



227. Dry Fruits are those that ripen without flesh or 

 pulp. They are either dehiscent or indehiscent. Dehis- 

 cent seed-vessels are those which split or burst open, in 

 some regular way, to discharge the seeds. Indehiscent 

 seed-vessels are those that remain closed, retaining the seed until they gi'ow, or 



until the seed-vessel decays. All stone fruits and fleshy 

 fruits are of course indehiscent. 



228. The sorts of indehiscent dry fruits that we need 

 to distinguish are the Akene, the Grain, the Nut, and 

 the Key. 



229. The Akene includes all dry, one-seeded, closed, 

 small fruits, such as are generally mistaken for naked 



seeds ; such, for instance, as the little seed-like fruits of Buttercups. (Fig. 203 is one 

 of these, whole, a good deal enlarged ; Fig. 204, one with part of the wall cut away.) 



S03 



Akene. 



