FRUITS 253 
those parts of a plant that are useful to man, while in a state 
of nature the plant seeks to develop such parts as best serve 
its own purpose in the struggle for existence. The plants 
most useful to man have, as a general thing, been subjected 
to a long course of artificial breeding and selection. They 
are forced developments, often monstrosities, from the plant’s 
point of view, if we could conceive of it as capable of having 
an opinion. Nature is continually striving to reclaim them; 
and if left to themselves, they must 
either obey “the call of the wild,” 
or die out. 
285. Seedless fruits and vegeta- 
bles.— As the seed is the most 
important thing to the plant, the 
edible parts in wild fruits are, as a 
rule, subsidiary to its development. 
In a state of nature, fruits will gen- A , 
erally wither and drop from the — yy, 366,—A seedless cit- 
stem, if for any reason they have ‘ange, hybrid between the or- 
: ‘i ‘ ange and the lemon. 
become incapable of perfecting their 
seed. It is only in a few kinds, limited to those which can 
successfully propagate themselves by other means, that the 
production of seed does not take place. Among cultivated 
species, however, where propagation is carefully provided 
for by man, the seed is of less importance, and sterile vari- 
eties that might soon die out under natural conditions, con- 
tinue their existence indefinitely under his fostering hand. 
The seeds of edible fruits are, as a general thing, both ‘ndi- 
gestible and unpalatable (21), and hence the efforts of the 
horticulturist are directed largely to getting rid of them, or 
to very greatly reducing their size and number in proportion 
to the edible parts. 
286. How seedless fruits arise. — The perfecting of seed 
requires a great consumption of food and energy on the part 
of the plant, and when it is led, for any reason, to expend 
an unusual amount of force in some other function, —as 
