46 ADHESION. 
is, In ordinary language, called the fruit really consists 
of the whole mass of flowers constituting the inflo- 
rescence fused together. Union of the fruits may also 
in some cases take place between the carpels after the 
fall of the other floral whorls, particularly when the 
outer layers of the pericarp assume a succulent con- 
dition, so that under the general head of syncarpy really 
different conditions are almost necessarily grouped 
together, and, in seeking to investigate the causes of the 
phenomenon, he particular circumstances of each indi- 
vidual case must be taken into account. Syncarpy 
takes place in various degrees ; sometimes only the 
stalks are joined; at pee times the whole extent of 
the fruit, as in cherries, &c. This peculiarity did not 
escape the observant mind of Shakespeare— 
“ A double cherry seeming parted, 
But yet a union in partition, 
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.” 
‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ act iui, se. 2. 
A similar union has been observed in peaches, goose- 
berries, gourds, melons, and a great many other fruits. 
In the Barbarossa grape I have frequently seen a 
fusion of two, three, four or more berries quite at the 
end of the bunch, so that the clusters were terminated 
by acompound grape. Seringe has remarked sometimes 
two, sometimes three, fruits of Ranunculus tripartitus 
soldered together. He has also seen three melons 
similarly joined.’ Turpin mentions having seen a 
complete union between the three smooth and leathery 
pericarps which are naturally separate and enclosed 
within the spiny cupule of the chestnut.” Poiteau and 
Turpin have figured and described in their treatise 
on fruit trees, under the name of Néfle de Correa, 
four or five medlars, joined together and surmounted 
by all the persistent leaflets of the calyces.’ 
1 «Bull. Bot.,’ tab. iii, figs. 4—6. 
2 «Mém. greffe Ann. Science Nat.,’ ser. i, t. xxiv, p. 334. 
3 “ Mespilus portentosa.” Poit. et Turp., ‘ Pomol. Franc.,’ liv. xxxi, p. 
202, pl. 202. 
