EEPEODUCTITB ORGANS OF PLANTS. 301 



also the butternut and hickory-nut. Raspberries and 

 blackberries are clusters of small drupes. 



Pome is a tei'm applied to fruits like the apple and 

 pear, the core of which is the true seed-vessel, originally- 

 belonging to the pistil, while the often edible flesh is the 

 enormously enlarged and thickened calyx, whose withered 

 tips are always to be found at the end opposite the stem. 



The Berry is a many-seeded fruit of which the entire 

 seed-vessel becomes thick and soft, as the grape, currant, 

 tomato, and huckleberry. 



Gourd fruits have externally a hard rind, but are fleshy 

 in the interior. The melon, squash, and cucumber, are of 

 this kind. 



The Akene is a fruit containing a single seed which does 

 not separate from its dry envelope. The so-called seeds 

 of the composite plants, for example the sun-flower, thistle, 

 and dandelion, are aJcenes. On removing the outer husk 

 Or seed-vessel we find within the true seed. Many akenes 

 are famished with a, pappus, a downy or hairy appendage, 

 as seen in the thistle, which enables the seed to float and 

 be carried about in the wind. The fruit or grain of buck- 

 wheat is akene-like. 



The Grains are properly fruits. Wheat and maize con- 

 sist of the seed and the seed-vessel closely united. When 

 these grains are ground, the bran that comes off is the 

 seed-vessel together with the outer coatings of the seed. 

 Barley-grain, in addition to the seed-vessel, has the petals 

 of the flower or inner chaff, and oats have, besides these, 

 the calyx or outer chaff adhering to the seed. 



Pod is the name properly apf)lied to any dry seed-ves- 

 sel which opens and scatters its seeds when ripe. Several 

 kinds have received special designations ; of these we need 

 only notice one. 



The Legume is a pod, like that of the bean, which 

 splits into two halves, along whose inner edges seeds are 

 Digitized by Microsoft® 



