62 MORPHOLOGICAL BOTANY. 



THE FRUIT. 



The Fruit is the ripened gynoecium, and it contains one 

 or more seeds which are the ripened ovules. 



Parts of the Fruit. — The ordinary fruit consists of two 

 parts : namely, of the fruit-coat called the Pericarp, which 

 is either thin, as in the Kabura and Daidzu, or thick, as in 

 'the Mums and Momo (Fig. 84); and of one or more seeds. 

 Although the pericarp consists normally of the mature 

 ovary-coat or ovary-coats, as in the Mume and Kaki, some- 

 times the calyx and receptacle (page 75) also enter into its 

 composition, as in the Nashi, (Fig. 86) and Eingo (Pyrus 

 Malus, var. tomentosa). 



When very thick, the pericarp is divisible into three 

 layers, an external called the Exocarp; a middle, the 

 Mesocarp ; and an inner, the Endocarp. The exocarp is 

 mostly tough and thin ; the mesocarp often very thick and 

 fleshy ; and the endocarp is sometimes thick and very hard. 



When thick and very hard the endocarp is termed the 

 Stone or Putamen ; such endocarp is seen in the fruits of 

 the Mume and Momo (Fig. 84). 



Parts of the fruit 



Pericarp 



Seeds. 



Exocarp. 



Mesocarp. 



Endocarp. 



Duration of the fruit. — Some fruits fall off when fully 

 rips, as those of the Mume and Momo, but others remain 

 permanently on the stem even after the plant dies, as those 

 of the Daidzu and Togarashi (Capsicum longum). Those 

 of the former kind are said to be Deciduous, and those of 

 the latter Persistent. 



t-. f Deciduous. 



Duration of the fruit _ 



l Jrersistent. 



