MORPHOLOGY OF THE FRUIT AND SEED 237 



of the oosphere, yet the term is also applied to whatever is 

 comhined with the ovary so as to form a covering to the seed 

 or seeds. All fruits which are not formed entirely from the 

 pistil, but which consist also of other portions of the flower, 

 peduncle, or other parts, are now commonly termed spurious 

 fruits or pseudocarps, in contradistinction from those formed 

 entirely from the pistil, which are called true fruits. 



General Chakaotees of the Feuit. — The structure of the 

 true fruit resembling in all important particulars that of the 

 ovary, the modifications which it presents, as to composition, 

 position, &c., are described by similar terms. Thus we may 

 have simple or monocarpellary and compound or polycarpellary 

 fruits, as also apocarpous and syncarpous ones. Simple fruits, 

 like simple ovaries, are normally one-celled or unilocular ; while 

 a polycarpellary fruit may have one or more cells, according as 

 the dissepiments are absent or present, and the number of cells 

 is indicated by similar terms to those used when speaking of the 

 compound ovary. 



The fruit, like the ovary, necessarily possesses one or more 

 placentas, to which the seeds are attached ; and the same terms 

 are used in describing the different kinds of placentation, as 

 in the case of the ovary ; these differences are usually more 

 evident m the fruit. 



The fruit, again, is described as superior or inferior, in the 

 same sense as these terms are used in speaking of the ovary. 

 A fruit is inferior when it is formed from an inferior ovar3', 

 as in the Melon ; it is superior, as in the Mignonette (fig. 

 509) and Pea (fig. 512), when the ovary is superior, and the 

 calyx non-adherent. Inferior fruits should, strictly speaking, 

 be classed with pseudocarps, as they include parts of other 

 structures than the pistil. They are generally, however, 

 reckoned among true fruits. 



The base of the fruit is that point by which it is united to 

 the thalamus ; the apex is indicated by the attachment of the 

 style ; hence in those ovaries where the style is lateral or basilar, 

 as in many Rosaceae [figs. 441 and 442), Labiatse (fig. 412), and 

 Boraginacese (fig. 413), the organic apex of the fruit will be also 

 thus situated, so that the geometrical and organic apices will 

 then be very different. 



Composition op the Feuit. — The fruit when perfectly 

 formed consists of two parts ; namely, the pericarp, and the seed 

 or seeds contained within it. In the majority of oases when 

 the seeds are abortive the pericarp withers, and the fruit does 



