I 4 o CHAPTERS ON EVOLUTION. 



us how the modification of simple and well-known parts of the 

 flower may become transformed so as to be well- 

 nigh unrecognisable in the fruit No better illus- 

 tration of the latter fact can be found than in the 

 Strawberries (Fig. 68), which secured the full 

 admiration of Dr. Boteler, who declared that 

 " Doubtless God could have made a better berry, 

 but doubtless God never did" a remark the 

 correctness of which will probably be viewed 

 proportionately by the individual minds and 

 tastes which may consider the saying. Glancing 

 at the Strawberry flower, we see no promise therein of the toothsome 

 fruit which the summer brings ; and we may well be puzzled to dis- 

 cover the true nature of our berry, even after a close examination of 

 its substance. The apple cut across is seen to contain seeds therefore 

 we may reasonably enough imagine that, whatever growth has pro- 

 duced the fleshy fruit from the apple blossom, we find the seed- 

 producing pistil of the flower to be represented in its interior. 

 But no seeds are to be found in the interior of Dr. Boteler's berry. 

 Where, then, is the true fruit the ripened pistil of the Strawberry, 

 and what is the nature of the succulent mass we eat ? The science 

 of likenesses answers the question by a reference to the growth 

 of the Strawberry itself. In the flower, the pistil is seen to be 

 composed of a great many little parts, called " carpels " equally well 

 seen in the pistil of a buttercup. As the flower fades and the 

 pistil ripens, the end of the flower-stalk (called in botany the 

 receptacle) begins to swell out and to exceed the rest of the flower in 

 its growth. Soon it becomes red and succulent, and the little green 

 carpels of the pistil, each containing a single seed, come in due 

 time to be separated from each other, and to be embedded in the 

 juicy mass on which, when it was the simple end of the flower-stalk, 

 it was set. Thus to offer a friend the " botanical fruit " of the 

 Strawberry would be a proceeding tantamount to invite him to a 

 Barmecide's feast : since, to fulfil the promise, we should simply 

 require to pick out from the surface of the berry the little green 

 carpels (f) which represent the ripe pistil of the flower the popular 

 " fruit," as we have seen, being merely the enlarged end of the flower- 

 stalk. In such a case, one might well be excused for preferring the 

 common construction of the term " fruit " to the scientific, and for 

 neglecting the intellectual aspect of the berry in favour of the exer- 

 cise of practical aesthetics as applied to the end of the flower-stalk. 



The Strawberry does not stand alone in its illustration of the 

 curious facts concerning the transformation of flowers which the study 

 of homologies elicits. What, for example, is to be said of the Rose- 

 fruit (Fig. 69) itself, save that the familiar red "hip" of our hedgerows 

 is formed by the enlarged and hollowed flower-stalk (c), along with 



