LESSON 23.J 



ITS KINDS. 



129 



cent frnit, ^uch as is popularly taken for a naked seed : but it is 

 plainly a ripened ovary, and shows the re- 

 mains of its style or stigma, or the place 

 zss from which it has 



fallen. Of this sort 

 are the fruits of the 

 Buttercup (Fig. 286, 



287), the Cinque-foil, and the Strawberry (Fig. 

 279, 288) ; that is, the real fruits, botanically 

 speaking, of the latter, which are taken for seeds, 

 not the large juicy receptacle on the surface of 

 which they rest (330). Here the akenes are 

 simple pistils (305), very numerous in the same 

 flower, and forming a head of such fruits. In 

 the Nettle, Hemp, &c., there is only one pistil to 

 each blossom, 



348. In the raspberry and blackberry, each grain 

 is a similar pistil, like that of the strawberry in the 

 flower, but ripening into a miniature stone-fruit, or 

 drupe. So that in the strawberry we eat the 

 receptacle, or end of the flower-stalk ; in the rasp- 

 berry, a cluster of stone-fruits, like cherries on a 

 very small scale ; and in the blackberry, both a juicy 

 receptacle and a cluster of htone-fruits covering it 

 (Fig. 289, 290). 



349. The fruit of the Composite family is also 

 an achenium. Here the surface of the ovary is 

 covered by an adherent calyx-tube, as is evident 

 from the position of the corolla, apparently standing 

 on its summit (321, nd Fig. 220, a). Sometimes the 

 limb or divisions of the calyx are entirely wanting, 



as in Mayweed (Fig. 291) and Whiteweed. Sometimes the limb 

 of the calyx forms a crown or cup on the top of the achenium, as in 

 Succory (Fig. 292) ; in Coreopsis, it often takes the form of two 

 blunt teeth or scales ; in the Sunflower (Fig. 293), it consists of two 



FIG. 286. Achenium of Buttercup. 987. Same, cut through, to show the seed within. 



FIG. 288. Slice of a part of a ripe strawberry, enlarged ; some of the achenia shown cut 

 through. 



FIG. 289. Slice of a part of a blackberry. 290 One of the grains or drupes divided, mow 

 enlarged ; showing the flesh, the stone, and the seed, as in Fig. 985. 

 S&F7 



