140 



FLOWER-LAND. 



varies a good deal in character : 

 sometimes it is dry, but part of it is 

 often soft and juicy ; so fruits are 

 dry or succulent according to the 

 nature of their pericarp. 



Now I will tell you some ex- 

 amples, and we will find as many of 

 ni e them as we can. The pericarp is 

 Fig. 119. Fruit of an dry, and hard or leathery, in the 



Almond tree. Longi- . ' , , , , , 



tudinal section (cut in hazel nut > buttercup, vetch, bean, 

 half lengthways)., the radish and poppy; and these are 



seed, e endocarp, m 

 mesocarp, .r epicarp, all dry fruits, 

 making up p the peri- 

 carp, / the funicle. But think of the plum, apricot, 



peach, or cherry. In these you 

 have the thin epicarp or outside skin, then the 

 epicarp so ft juicy part you like to eat, 



which is the mesocarp ; whilst 



-mesocarp the sheU of the gtone ig tht . 

 endocarp , . 



hardened endocarp (Fig. 1 20) 

 These, therefore, are succulent 

 fruits ; so also are the grape, 

 the currant, and the date, in 

 which both mesocarp and 



endocarp are soft and pulpy, the seed or seeds being 



imbedded in them. 



Be careful not to confuse the skin of the fig, or the 



hip of the rose, with the pericarp of the fruit, for these 



as you know, are pseudocarps, and have the fruits with 



their hard dry pericarps inside them. 



Fig. 1 20. Fruit of Cherry 

 (cut in half). 



