MEINFOBGED FRUITS 



281 



the flower closely. The flowers are no sooner 

 fertilized than the cold weather closes in. The 

 petals wither, 

 and the flower 

 enters upon a 

 long hiberna- 

 tion. In spring 

 these flowers 

 look as if the 

 petals had just died, the lobes 

 still persisting upon the calyx- 

 cup and the two styles remain 

 green and fresh on the downy 

 ovary. The capsule slowly en- 

 larges into a 2-loculed and 2- 

 seeded nut-like fruit, the calyx-cup adhering firmly 

 to its base. It splits loculicidally, and elastic 

 tissues, probably released by hygroscopic action, 

 throw the seeds a distance of several feet. 



Fig. 281. 

 Young cocoa-nuts. 



331a. Very hard fruits, like that of the witch-hazel, are popu- 

 larly called nuts. In botanical usage, however, a nut is a hard 

 and dry indehiscent 1-seeded fruit, which arises from a, compound 

 ovary by the suppression of all the ovules except one. By this defi- 

 nition acorns, beech-nu,ts, hickory-nuts, hazels and filberts are nuts. 



3316. It is often asked why the witch-hazel blossoms in the 

 fall. We do not know; but if a search were made of its gene- 

 alogy, we might find some clew. If some plants are large and 

 others small, and if some are trees and some are vines, to enable 

 each to find a place and a way to live in the ever -increasing 

 conflict of numbers, then it is not too much to suppose that some 



