304 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



nature of the plant. Sometimes the carpels merely 

 dry and shrivel up, forming a membranous hag 

 around the seed (Fig. 88); at other times they 



In the legume, or Pea-pod (Pig. 92), and in the 

 stone fruits, the carpels alone constitute the fruit, 

 the outer coats of which in the lattei; case are soft, 

 the inner hard and woody ; hut in pippin fruits like 

 the Apple or Pear the edible portion of the fruit is 

 not the ripe carpels, hut the fleshy flower-stalk which 

 has grown up around them (Fig. 93). The carpels 



Fiir. 92. — Legume of 

 Fea opening when 

 ripe by two valves. 



Fig. 93.— Section of Fmit of Apple, composed of the swollen 

 top of the flower-stalk, Burmounted by the remains of 

 the calyx or ** eye," The section shows the stalk, /, dilat- 

 ing iato the fleshy portion, te, surronnding and enclosing 

 the true fmit-carpels or "core," e, whi(i in their torn 

 enclose the pips or seeds, s; c is the eye or remains of 

 the calyx; st, the remains of the stamens. 



Fig. 94.— Strawberry. The 

 thalamus or axis of the 

 flower is swollen above the 

 calyx, and bears the "pips" 

 or true fruits, as it were, 

 sank in its suxf ace. 



become hard and woody, or soft outside and hard 

 within, as in the so-called "stone fruit" (Figs. 89, 90), 

 or entirely fleshy, as in the Grape or Currant (Fig. 

 91). And between these several conditions there is 

 every possible intermediate stage. Nor is this all ; 

 the "fruit" is often constituted, not only by the 

 ripened carpels, hut by those organs combined with 

 others. 



here are represented by the " core." In the Melon 

 and the Cucumber, the Currant and Gooseberry, 

 the upper end of the flower-stalk in like manner 

 grows over the true carpels, which thus become em- 

 bedded in the interior. That this is so is shown 

 by watching the mode of growth, and, where that 

 cannot be done, by observing the remains of the 

 calyx at the top of the fruit, as in the eye of a Pear. 



