III. FRUITS 1 



FLESHY FRUITS 



Material. — Apple, pear, haw, hip, or other pome fruit ; any kind 

 of melon or gourd fruit (if a specimen of the turban squash can be 

 obtained it will illustrate well the morphology of this kind of fruit) ; 

 tomato, cranberry, lemon, grape, or other kind of berry ; a pickled 

 peach or cherry, or some kind of wild drupe, as dogwood or black haw. 

 City schools can obtain specimens for the lessons in this chapter from 

 fruit stores, and teachers can do a great deal by collecting and pre- 

 serving material when on their summer outings. 



73. What is a Fruit ? — The word fruit does not mean 

 exactly the same thing to the botanist that it does to the 

 gardener and the farmer. Botanically, a fruit is any 

 ripened seed vessel, or ovary, as it is technically named, 

 with such connected parts as may have become incorpo- 

 rated with it; and so, to the botanist, a boll of cotton, a 

 tickseed, or a cockle bur is just as much a fruit as a peach 

 or a watermelon. 



74. The Pome. — Examine an apple or pear. With the 

 point of a pencil separate the little dry, pointed scales that 

 cover the depression in the center of the end opposite to 

 the stem. These are the remains of the sepals, or lobes of 

 the little green cup called a calyx that will be found at the 

 base of all apple and pear blossoms in spring. Their 



1 It may seem a little premature to begin the study of fruits here, as some 

 kinds cannot be fully understood without examining them in connection with 

 the flower, but the desirableness of taking them up at a season when material 

 is abundant seems to the author more than an offset to this objection. It will be 

 found a great advantage, moreover, to familiarize the pupil with the structure 

 of the ripened ovary, where the parts are large and easy to distinguish, before 

 taking up the study of that organ, in the flower, where it is often so small that 

 it can not conveniently be dissected. 



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