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HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



is dpscribod also is being arute, as in sago ; or 

 obtuse, as in the filbert; or truncated, or eniar- 

 g;inate, as in thlaspi; or umbellicate, as in the 

 apple. The size of the fruit is also very various, 

 but is not always in proportion to the plant that 

 produces it. The oak and the ash, though among 

 the largest of trees, produce a fruit that is com- 

 paratively but very diminutive, while the gourd, 

 whose stem is but herbaceous and creeping, 

 produces a fruit of a most enormous bulk. The 

 largest fruits occur amongst the palms, or among 

 eucurbitaceous and leguminous plants. The 

 fruit of a palm called leontarus malderica, is often 

 a foot and a half in diameter ; and that of mi- 

 mosa scandens, often six feet in length. The 

 fruit in its immature state is always soft and 

 pulpy ; but in its matured and ripened state it 

 is generally finn and compact, and sometimes so 

 very hard that it can scarcely be cut. In the 

 cherry it is succulent, in the strawberry pulpy, 

 in the apple fleshy ; in slaphylea it is membran- 

 aceous; in the elm tree leathery, in the nut 

 woody. But it is very seldom of the same con- 

 sistence throughout. For sometimes the outer 

 lart is soft, and the inner hard, as in the peach 

 and cherry ; and sometimes the outer part is hard, 

 and the inner soft, as in the filbert and cocoa 

 nut, while sometimes both parts ai-e alike, as in 

 the pine apple. Some fruits are covered with 

 a thick rind, many with a thin cuticle only. 

 The cuticle may be seen in succulent berries, 

 and the rind or bark in the orange, lemon, and 

 cocoa nut. The bark is in general closely at- 

 tached to the interior part, but sometimes it is 

 remote from it, and inflated. In its exterior 

 surface it is generally smooth and uniform, as in 

 the cherry ; or cottony, as in peony ; or scaly, as 

 in sago ; or dotted, as in the orange ; or perfor- 

 ated with holes, as in the bread-fruit, {artocar- 

 pus;) or ribbed, as in the melon ; or rough, as in 

 gallium aparine; or set with tubercles, as in 

 ondbrychus; or with prickles, as in canna indica; 

 or with thorns, as in trapa. It is also often 

 beautifully twisted. When the blossom begins 

 to fade, and the colour of the corolla to decay, 

 tlie beauty of the plant seems to have departed 

 with the departing flower. But these tints are 

 often more than compensated by the rich and 

 mellow colouring of the fruit. The ripened 

 tints of autumn are found to be equally pleasing 

 with the bloom of spring ; and the colour of the 

 peach and apricot, the plum and the cherry, are 

 in nothing inferior to the hues which preceded 

 them. Nor are fruits ornamental only. They 

 evidently exhibit one of those arrangements of 

 uature, by which a beneficent Providence ac- 

 complishes two important ends by one means. 

 For not only do pulpy fruits and seeds afford 

 the necessary nouiishment to the germ of the 

 fiiture plant, but they also furnish important 

 articles of food to man and the lower animals. 



Fruits are said to be single when a flower pio 

 duces only one seed, or several seeds contained 

 in a single seed-vessel. When many seeds are 

 produced either detached or united, except 

 by one style, the fruit is said to be multiplicatc. 

 The number of the fruit produced by one indi- 

 vidual flower, is not, however, always the same, 

 even in the same species, because all the original 

 ovaries are not always impregnated. If the 

 fruit is produced in pairs, as in umbelliferous 

 plants ; or in threes, as in the lily ; or in fours, 

 as in verticellate plants ; or in fives, as in the 

 geranium ; or in an indefinite number from the 

 same flower, as in the rose and ranunculus ; it is 

 then said to be conjugate, or compound. The 

 compound fruit is either lobed or divisible. It 

 is divisible if in its immature state it presents 

 a uniform and integral appearance, but after- 

 wards separates into distinct portions, as in the 

 pod of the pea and bean. It is lobed if the 

 portions into which it may separate are attached 

 to a common axis, as in meadow saffron, {col- 

 chiaim.) There is also another species of com- 

 pound Iruit, distinguished by Gsertner, which is 

 formed by the union of two or more ovaries of 

 different flowers, combined into one whole, as in 

 caprifolius and artocarpus. 



Such are the general and external modifica- 

 tions of the finit considered as a whole; we now 

 proceed to describe its constituent parts, consisting 

 exteriorly of the pericarp,- and interiorly of the 

 seed. 



The pericarp is that part of a ripe and perfect 

 frait fonned by the walls of the fecundated 

 ovary, and containing one or more seeds. It 

 determines the form of the fruit. 



The pericarp is never wanting, but it is some- 

 times so tliin, or so intimately united to the 

 seed, that it can hardly be distinguished in the 

 ripe fruit, so that, many authors imagining it 

 not to exist, have said that the seeds are naked; 

 as in the labiatse, umbelliferse, and synantherea;. 

 But it is now proved that there are no naked 

 seeds, and that the pericarp is never wanting. 

 The pericai-p commonly presents, on some pai-t 

 of its outer surface, generally towards the 

 highest part, the remains of the style or stigma. 

 According to Richard, tlie pericarp is always 

 formed of tlireo parts, viz. 1st, The epicarp, an 

 external thin membrane, or kind of epidermis, 

 which determines its form, and constitutes its 

 outer covering; 2dly, An internal membrane 

 which is spread over its seed-bearing cavity, and 

 which has received the name of endocarp; 3dly, 

 Between these two membranes, a parenchyma- 

 tous and fleshy part, which is named sarcocarp 

 or mesocarp. These three parts, intimately 

 united, form the pericarj). 



When the ovary is inferior, that is, whenever 

 it is united to the tube of the calyx, tlie epicarp 

 is formed by the tube of the calyx, the parcn- 



