316 BIOLOGY. 



CLASS X7L 



Apple-plants Rosacea. 



1751. The fruit is an apple, i. e. several carpels, con- 

 taining but few seeds, adhere in one calyx, upon which 

 there are five corolla-petals, with four to six times as 

 many stamina. Herbs, shrubs, and trees with different 

 kinds of leaves are here met with; the corollse are 

 mostly small and perigynous, the style separated, and 

 thus polycarpal. Perigynous Polycarpse. They grow, 

 dispersed over the whole earth, in dry situations ; several 

 of them yield edible fruits, and are pretty generally cul- 

 tivated. 



1752. The apples are without doubt the most perfect 

 fruit, as well in reference to their structure as their 

 chemical ingredients. The apple consists of all the parts 

 of the blossom : seed, capsule, and fleshy calyx, and is 

 besides polycarpellar, i. e. composed of separate carpels. 

 Its edible substance or flesh is not simply a sweet-meat, 

 but a true aliment, which admits of being eaten after it 

 has been kept fresh for a year, of being dried, exported, 

 or cooked as a kitchen vegetable ; in cases of exigency 

 too it occurs in such abundance that the whole human 

 race might live upon it, which cannot be said of any 

 other fruit. The apple quenches at the same time the 

 thirst, and thus supplies also the place of drink. All 

 the other fruits are either a dainty relish only against 

 thirst, or a simple amylaceous medium of nutrition. 

 However, most of the plants belonging to this class 

 produce only dry capsules and calyces. 



1753. They divide into two groups, having few or 

 many stamina. 



Eirst order, Pomarite parenchymatosa. Herbs with 

 few stamina and five or more carpels, as the Crassulacece 

 and Mesembryanthemacece. 



Second order, P. vaginata. Shrubs with few stamina, 

 only two to three carpels and few seeds. Tamaricacea, 

 Bruniacece. 



