138 



FLOWER-LAND. 



read again about the pistil inCh. XXI. I need only 

 add that an apocarpous or syncarpous fruit, since it 

 is formed from a pistil of more than one carpel is 

 often called compound to distinguish it from a simple 

 fruit, which is formed from a pistil of one carpel 

 only. 



Each of these fruits that we have been speaking 

 about is formed, as you know, from a single flower. 

 But sometimes a fruit is formed from several flowers. 

 The common fig is a well-known example of this 

 kind of fruit, and as easy as any for you to under- 

 stand. The flowers of the fig tree are very curiously 

 placed. The flower stalk is hollowed out into a 

 kind of fleshy bag or receptacle, and the flowers are 

 arranged inside it. Cut open a 

 fig whilst it is young and green, 

 Fnu\. and see if you can distinguish 

 them. In due course the 

 flowers produce their fruits, 

 and these are the little grains so 

 familiar to us in the pulp of the 

 ripened fig. So the skin of the 

 fig is part of the expanded 

 flower stalk ; (the fig is therefore a pseudocarp) 

 and inside are the collected fruits of all its many 

 flowers. So this kind of fruit is called a collective 

 fruit, to distinguish it from those fruits which are 

 formed only from a single flower (Fig. 116). 

 Other examples of collective fruits are the fir 

 cone (Fig. 117), the hop, the mulberry, and the 



Fig. 116. Collective 

 fruit of Fig. Pseudo- 

 carp. Fruits enclosed 

 in hollowed peduncle. 



