108 THROUGH GLADE AND MEAD. 
That is the main object of their existence. Every part 
of their structure looks forward to the ripening of the 
fruit. And what a manifold variety of forms the fruit 
exhibits! Here, as elsewhere, it is only the attentive 
study which reveals all the truth. 
Technically, the fruit consists of the matured pistil 
or gynecium, including whatever may be joined with it. 
It is not necessarily edible, as fruit, in common language, 
is supposed to be. The word, fruit, is rather a loose 
term applied to a matured ovary, to a cluster of such 
ovaries when coherent, and to a matured ovary with 
the calyx and other parts of the flower attached to it. 
Fruits, therefore, are simple or complex, in various de- 
grees, and have names to correspond. Simple fruits 
exhibit a great variety of forms, to which a correspond- 
ing variety of technical names has been applied. One 
is bewildered by such a list of terms as follicle, legume, 
loment, pyxis, silique, silicle, schizocarp, samara, caryop- 
sis, utricle, akene and others, not to include the familiar 
nut, drupe, pome and berry, until a careful study of the 
forms of fruits has shown the characteristic differences 
and the necessity for some scheme of classification. 
“ By their fruits ye shall know them” is a good rule 
in botany and horticulture as in morals. Acorns grow 
on oaks, although the leaves may resemble those of the 
chestnut so strongly that the tree may be called the 
chestnut-oak. Grapes do not grow on thorns nor figs 
