304 



NATURAL niSTOBY OF PLAINTS. 



upwards and inwards, and is capped by a somewhat liood-sliaped 

 i)r(itul)oranco from the elongated funicle. All the carpels, at first 

 free, later become buried in the deep layer of the floral receptacle, 

 whic'h, thickening as it grows older, rises up in the intervals between 

 the ovaries, surrounding them, and later even the styles, as high up 

 as the bases of their capitate stigmas, but not contracting any 

 adhesion with them ; so that the stigmas are alone visible on top 



Tamhourissa quadrifida. 



Fig. 350. 

 Drupe (I). 



Fig. 349. 

 Longitudinal section of fruit (|). 



Fig. 351. 

 Longitudinal section 

 of drupe. 



of the narrow canals traversed by the styles. The multiple fruit, 

 in general appearance like the female flower, has more or less fleshy 

 or woody walls.' Its receptacle is hollowed out into a number of 

 cavities, each of which contains an ovary in its original position, but 

 now transformed into a more or less compressed drupe (figs. 350, 

 351). The mesocarp and stone are not very thick, and enclose a 

 suspended seed, containing within its membranous coats" a very 



' Tlicse outer forms, it must be remembered, 

 only belong to the indusium formed by the 

 hypcrtro])hied floral receptacle. To free the true 

 fruits, often described by older botanists as the 

 seeds, it is, however, necessary that there should be 

 some solution of continuity in this indusium ; in 

 fact, a sort of dehiscence due both to the centri- 

 fugal pressure exerted by the growing drnp s on 

 the walls of the receptacle, and to the tendency 

 of the receptacular sac to spread out and become 

 less concave {Adansonia, ix. 127). Its edges 

 separate and even become inverted, while the 

 superior table (representing the interior epidermis 



and neighbouring layers of the receptacle) be- 

 comes cleft and pushed up irregularly ; after- 

 wards the unequal lips of these clefts are reflexed 

 outwards. The true fruit, the drupes, then ap- 

 pear in large numbers on the surface, as the 

 seeds of a pomegranate might do if it burst when 

 ripe ; the whole now presenting a bright red 

 colour due to the fleshy part of the pericarps. 



^ They become thicker and slightly crusta- 

 ceous over the whole region of the raphe, so that 

 when ripe this may easily come ofl^ from the seed 

 like a narrow fillet. 



