Seed-Scattering 247 



A plant's fruit is the ripened ovary, containing the 

 seed; and when the seed is the part used for food, 

 man naturally devotes his attention to that, and cares 

 nothing for the case. From corn, for example, and 

 from nuts, he wants the seed, not the husk or shell, 

 and therefore he cultivates and increases the size of 

 the seeds. But the seeds of pears, grapes, pine-apples, 

 oranges, dates, are not what he wants ; and in some 

 of the best sorts of all these he has so cultivated the 

 ovary, or fleshy envelope, at the expense of the seeds, 

 that these have almost, if not quite, disappeared. 



He has done much the same thing, too, with some 

 of the best figs ; only here he cares neither for seed 

 nor ovary, but for the receptacle ; for a fig may be best 

 described as being, like a strawberry, turned outside in. 



We may have seen young figs growing on the trees 

 in plenty, but who ever- saw a fig-tree in blossom ? 



The first things to make their appearance on the 

 leafless branches in spring are not buds but miniature 

 figs. They have much the appearance of hard green 

 buds, but are in truth stems, hollowed out, and having 

 blossoms ranged* -round them inside, each pistillate 

 blossom having its own ovary, which ripens into a 

 minute nut — the true fruit. The stem or receptacle, 

 therefore, is the part which becomes sweet and fleshy, 

 and it contains within it many ovaries, just as, in 

 the case of the strawberry, many ovaries are placed 

 upon the receptacle. When the gardener increases the 

 size of the receptacle, then, and diminishes or does 

 away with the ' seeds,' he grows little if any fruit, 

 though plenty of figs. 



The fig is a tree nearly related to the mulberry, hop, 

 hemp, and stinging-nettle, none of which bear pistils 



