182 



Plants and their Ways in South Africa 



A fruit like an Apple is called a pome. 

 The Pomegranate has a two-storied fruit. If you cut across 

 the truit very low down you will find three chambers with 



II. 



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KiG. 182. — I. Longitudinal section through the hypanthodium of a Fig, ex- 

 posing the flowers in its interior ; 11. a piece greatly magnified, with five female 

 flowers ; -t, pistil ; b^ perianth. (FYom Thome and Bennett's " Structural and 

 Physiological Botany ".) 



seeds borne at the centre ; higher up a cross section will show- 

 five or more chambers whore the seeds are borne in the outer 

 edge. When the fruit ripens the bright red tubular axis takes 

 part in its formation. 



B. Fruits Formed from a Collection of Flowers. — All 

 fruits thus far described have grown from the centre of a single 

 flower. In ihe fig the hollowed receptacle bears within its 

 cavity a great number of flowers. In some figs the flowers 

 bear only ovaries; in others the staminate flowers are borne. 

 It is the work of one very small insect to convey the pollen 

 from one kind of Fig to the stigmas in the other. 



In many species, all or most of the ovulate flowers below ihe 

 staminate ones are transformed into gall flowers. This is the 

 case for instance in Fiais iarica which has three kinds of flowers 

 — staminate flowers and those with short and with long styles. 



