252 



ZHSSOIfS WITS PLANTS 



291. The seed is the ripened ovule. The seed 

 is enclosed within the walls of the ripened ovary, 

 and the ripened ovary or seed- 

 vessel is the pericarp. The entire 

 structure, comprising seed, peri- 

 carp, and the parts which may 

 be inseparably grown to them, 

 is the fruit. 



Fig. 236. 



Tailed akene of 

 clematis. 



291a. The term fruit is in eommon use 

 in botanical writings. It is sometimes used 

 to designate only tie ripened pistil (the peri- 

 carp and seeds), but better usage allows it 

 to stand for the pericarp and whatever other 

 structure (as calyx or receptacle) may be 

 organically united with it. The horticulturist 

 uses it more loosely, for any edible product 

 which is more or less intimately associated in its development with 

 the flower. Confusion, therefore, arises ; and since the word be- 

 longed first to general literature and to horti- 

 culture, which, therefore, have prior rights, it is 

 a pity that it was ever given a technical botan- 

 ical meaning. But there is no good technical 

 word which can be substituted for it. 



292. In the hepatiea akene, the 

 growth since flowering time has 

 been confined to the pericarp and pig. 237. 



seed. Fig. 236 is the akene of a Burs of hound's- 

 clematis, which, like the hepatiea, 1°^^^'^ '^^^"^ "''*"- 

 is one of the crowfoot family or 

 Ranunculacese. The tail -like part is the enlarged 

 and elongated style. It is seen, therefore, that 



