262 PRACTICAL COURSE IN BOTANY 
commonest of all fruits, and there are so many kinds that 
special names have been applied to some of the most marked 
varieties. The akene of the 
composite family may gen- 
erally be known by the 
various appendages in the 
form of scales, hooks, hairs, 
or chaff, that crown it (Figs. 
3809-314). The fruits of the 
see aes oem parsley family are merely a 
ar ae fruits of sort of double akene at- 
tached by the inner face 
to a slender stalk from which it separates at maturity. 
The samara, or key fruit, is an akene provided with a 
wing to aid in its disper- 
sion by the wind. ‘The 
maple, ash, and elm fur- 
nish familiar examples. 
297. The grain, so fa- 
miliar to us in all kinds of 
grasses, is economically 
the most important of all Fias. 385, 386.— Samaras: 385, ailanthus; 
‘ 386, maple. 
fruits. It is popularly 
classed as a seed, and for practical purposes may be treated 
as such, but it is really a modification of the akene in which 
the seed coats have so completely fused with the pericarp 
that they can no longer be distinguished 
as separate organs. Peel the husk from 
a grain of corn that has been soaked for 
twenty-four hours, and you will find the 
contents exposed without any covering ; 
387 
Fics. 387, 388. — Grain ] 
af wheat, with bake ,, Pemove the shell of an acorn or a hickory 
387, front view ; 388,back nut, and the seed will still be enveloped 
ead by its own coats. Would it be of any 
advantage for the seed of an indehiscent fruit, like a grain of 
corn or oats, to have a separate special covering of its own? 
