SIMPLE PODS 259 



peach. It is no doubt a doubling by increase of 

 parts, as we have seen to take place in some 

 perianths (233). "We might speculate as to 

 whether this doubling may be a reversion to some 

 ancestral form, or an indication that multiple 

 pistils might become an established character of 

 the peach upon occasion; or it may be an inci- 

 dental variation of no significance in the evolution 

 of the plant. It is certainly evidence, however, 

 that the peach is capable of wide variation in 

 its essential organ. 



Suggestions. — The pupil should endeavor to make eoUections of 

 drupaceous fruits, and should study their sizes, colors and shapes, 

 and especially should notice their number as compared with the flow- 

 ers which bore them. He may be interested to cut them in two 

 at various stages of growth, to determine at what epoch the most 

 rapid thickening of the exooarp takes place. The fruit-grower 

 thinks that the pit grows early in the season and the flesh late 

 in the season : is this true ? 



XLIX. SIMPLE PODS 



303. The columbine (which we saw in Fig. 227) 

 has five pistUs, and the fruit is like that shown 

 in Fig. 247. One of them has opened at fe, and 

 several seeds have been discharged. In other 

 words, this fruit is dehiscent, whereas the akene 

 is indehiscent. It is approximately correct to say 



