TEE AKENE 



253 



even the style may persist and enter into the 

 make-up of the fruit. 



293. In these instances, the akene 

 is a ripened superior ovary. If 

 one turns again to the dandelion, 

 however (Fig. 171), he finds a 1- 

 seeded dry ovary, with the calyx (or 

 pappus) springing from its top. 

 This kind of fruit is characteristic 

 of the composite family, and we have 

 already observed several forms of it (Obs. xxxiii.) 



Fig. 238. 

 Flowei of strawberry. 



293a. This particular type of akene-fruit is known as a oyp- 

 sela, but the term is little used. The fruit of the grasses and 

 cereal grains is also an akene-like body which (as a grain of wheat 

 or the "meat" of an oat) is technically known as a caryopsis ; 

 here the seed is covered by the adherent walls of the ovary. 

 What is the structure of the "stick-tight" or 

 bur, in Fig. 237 ? The plant is a common and 

 familiar weed. The pistil of the mint (Fig. 

 140) may aid in the solution. 



294. Let the pupil examine a 

 flower of the strawberry (Fig. 238). 

 It is quadriserial and polypetalous. 

 As in the hepatica, the pistils are 

 many and 1-ovuled, and they form a 

 cluster or head in the center of the 

 flower, as akenes are very apt to do. 



Fig. 239. 



Normal fruit of 

 strawberry. 



294a. In the plan of the flower, the hepatica and strawberry 

 are much alike, and yet they belong to different families. 'J'he 



