70 



FRUITS 



now why the one should open and the other not ? Would 

 it be of any advantage for a one-seeded pod to open ? 

 Remove the kernel from the indehiscent fruit ; has it any 

 covering besides the shell ? Which is the pericarp, and 

 which the seed coat ? 



86. Indehiscent Fruits are so simple that it will not be 

 necessary to devote much time to them. Gather specimens 

 of as many kinds as you can find, and try to identify them 

 by means of the pictures and descriptions that follow. Do 

 not try to memorize these descriptions, but use fhem merely 

 as a help in studying actual specimens. The acorn, hick- 

 ory nut, chestnut, etc., furnish good examples of 



87. The Nut, which is easily recognized by its hard, 

 bony covering, containing usually, when mature, a single 

 large seed that fills the interior. Care must be taken not 

 to confound with true nuts, large bony seeds, like those of 

 the buckeye, horse-chestnut, date, and the Brazil nut sold 



131 132 133 134 



131, 132.— Nut of the pecan tree: 133, 134. — Nutlike seeds: 133, 



131, exterior I 133, cross section. horse-chestnut; 134, seed of stercaiia 



fcBtida. 



in the markets. In the true nut the hard covering is the 

 seed vessel, or pericarp, and no part of the seed itself, 

 though it often adheres to it so closely as to seem so. In 

 bony seeds like those of the horse-chestnut and persimmon 

 the hard covering is the seed coat. The distinction is not 

 always easy to make out unless the seed can be examined 

 while still attached to the placenta of the fruit. 



88. The Achene, of which we have examples in the tailed 

 fruit of the clematis, the tiny pits on the strawberry, and 



