268 PRACTICAL COURSE IN BOTANY 
Open your specimen and examine the contents; what do 
you find? From a dried specimen it will hardly be practicable 
to make out clearly that the pulp of the fig consists of hun- 
dreds of a ally pistillate blossoms that line the inner face of the 
receptacle. The little grains usually 
taken for seeds are really small akenes 
—the ripened ovaries of flowers that 
have been pollinated from the caprifig 
(279, 286). Crush one gently and exam- 
ine with a lens, or under a low power of 
the microscope. It is these ‘“botanically” 
Fic. 405. — Vertical sec- ripe fruits (284) that give to the dried 
alee a ae figs of commerce their plumpness and 
closed receptacle. their pleasant, nutty flavor. Why are 
our native American figs lacking in these qualities (279)? 
Could this defect be remedied? Do you know of any 
efforts being made in that direction by American cultivators? 
406 407 408 409 
Fics. 406-409. — Non caprificated and caprificated figs : 406, outside appearance 
of non caprificated fig ; 407, outside appearance of caprificated fig; 408, interior of 
caprificated fig ; 409, interior of non caprificated fig. 
306. Fruit clusters. — Be careful not to confound aggre- 
gate and collective fruits with mere clusters, like a bunch 
of grapes or of sumac berries. The distinction is not always 
easy to make out. The clump of akenes that make up a dan- 
delion ball, for instance, though held on a common recep- 
tacle, like the mulberry and other collective fruits, have 
so little connection with each other, and separate so com- 
pletely at maturity, as to partake more of the nature of a 
