428 ORDER ROSACES, OR ROSE TRIBE. 



with the Linnsean class ICOSANDRIA ; some, however, belong to the 

 class DODECANDRIA, as the Agrimony (Fig. 155.) The pistil of 

 the Strawberry is very much like that of a Crowfoot ; for it con- 

 sists of a large cluster of non-adherent carpels, each having its 

 own style and stigma, and containing a single seed. The trans- 

 formation of such a flower to the fruit of the Strawberry seems 

 very strange, until the process is understood. When the corolla 

 has fallen off, and the calyx has closed on the tender fruit, the 

 receptacle on which the carpels are set, gradually swells, and 

 separates them from each other, bearing them on its outside. 

 It becomes, at last, the soft juicy fruit ; and what appear to be 

 the seeds on its outside, are in reality the carpels, which were 

 originally in proximity with each other, and are now dry and 

 in close contact with the real seed-coats. The calyx remains 

 at the base of the swollen receptacle. 



594. It is principally in the number of carpels which undergo 

 development, and in the degree in which these are united toge- 

 ther, that we meet with variety in the structure of the flowers 

 and fruit of this order. In the Raspberry, we find the structure 

 of the Strawberry but slightly modified. The calyx has evi- 

 dently here but five parts ; the petals are five in number ; the 

 stamens are indefinite in number and adherent to the calyx ; and 

 the carpels are numerous and distinct, and are supported upon a 

 fleshy receptacle. In the ripening of the fruit, however, this 

 receptacle does not enlarge, as in the Strawberry, but remains 

 as the white hard core of the fruit ; and the fruit itself consists 

 of the carpels, which, instead of becoming dry, acquire an increase 

 of juice ; and it is the soft fleshy walls of these carpels, that 

 form the succulent part in which the seeds are imbedded, and 

 from which the core may be withdrawn. 



595. If we now turn our attention to the Rose tribe, we shall 

 find that the flower is constructed upon a plan which appears 

 similar, until we examine the centre of it, and there we find a 

 tuft of stigmas without any visible carpels. On looking further, 

 however, and pressing the flower forcibly, we find that the 

 styles rise up from the neck, as it were, of an oblong green body 

 which, being below the calyx, looks like an inferior ovarium. 



