FRUITS AND SEEDS AND THEIR USES 285 



because angiosperms are the only plants that produce seeds 

 within an ovary. However, the word fruit is often also ap- 

 plied to things that are neither true nor false fruits ; as, for 

 example, to the pine cone. We must be cautious not to be- 

 come confused by this and other careless uses of the word. 

 In the present chapter, only the fruits and seeds of angio- 

 sperms will be considered. 



291. How Fruits are Useful to Plants: Protection of 

 Seeds. No doubt the angiosperms have been greatly 

 helped by the fact that their seeds are enclosed in fruits. 

 But the advantages of this arrangement are by no means the 

 same in all cases ; various angiosperms produce very different 

 kinds of fruits that are useful in different ways. In general, 

 fruits are of use to the plants that bear them either because 

 they protect the seeds, especially while the seeds are young and 

 growing, or because they help in the scattering of the seeds. 

 Some, like the fruits of the gooseberry and the orange, are 

 useful in both these ways. 



Many seeds have hard or tough seed coats which cover 

 the softer parts inside ; such seeds need little or no further 

 protection, unless perhaps while they are quite young. 

 But many seeds do need additional protection either from 

 being eaten by animals, or from injury by extreme heat or 

 cold or dryness. It is from dangers such as these that fruit 

 coats protect the seeds of many plants. If a fruit coat is very 

 hard, like that of a nut, the seed coat within is likely to be 

 thin and tender. The fruits of most members of the gourd 

 family, to which the cucumber and squash belong, have 

 fruit coats that are firm but not so hard as those of nuts ; 

 the seeds of this family are also protected by tough seed 

 coats. 



The lemon, the orange, and their immediate relatives have 

 leathery fruit coats ; their seed coats, too, are hard and 

 firm. In stone fruits, like the cherry, plum, and peach, the 

 inner part of the ovary wall becomes the hard wall of the 



