BITTER APPLE 



107 



margins. During these changes the carpellary walls disappear, and 

 the fruit, originally three-celled, becomes spuriously one-celled. The 

 pulp consists largely of the fleshy placentas ; they usually split in a 

 radial direction throughout the greater part of their length, and in 

 the dried fruit they are deeply fissured. 



As seen in commerce, colocynth fruits form more or less broken 

 white balls, 5 cm. in diameter and light in weight. The rind has 

 generally been carefully peeled off, and the outer surface is formed by 

 part of the thin, whitish mesocarp, which, however, has in places itself 

 been removed, disclosing the yellowish or nearly brown seeds, or the 



FIG. 58. Colocynth fruit. A, transverse section of young fruit, showing 

 the placentas dividing near the margin and curving inwards ; B, ripe 

 fruit, showing each placenta fissured. (Moeller.) 



fleshy placentas. If a fruit is cut transversely the placentas will 

 generally exhibit radiating fissures dividing the fruit into three portions, 

 in each of which, near the periphery, a half of each placenta curves 

 inwards and bears on its inner margin several vertical rows of seeds. 

 These number from 200 to 300, and constitute about three-quarters 

 of the weight of the fruit ; they vary in colour from yellowish white 

 to dark brown according to the degree of ripeness. They have a 

 flattened ovoid shape, possess a hard seed-coat, and contain a small 

 oily kernel which, however, strange as it may seem, forms, when 

 properly prepared, a valuable addition to the scanty diet of certain 

 tribes of Arabs. 



For medicinal use the light, whitish, spongy, pith-like pulp, the bulk 

 of which is furnished by the placentas, should be freed from the seeds, 

 as the pulp alone is official. It possesses a slight odour, but an intensely 

 bitter taste, the seeds when quite free from pulp being almost tasteless. 



