308 



THE FRUIT. 



CHAPTER X. 



OF THE FRUIT. 



Sect. I. Its Structure, Transformations, and Dehiscence. 



581. The fertilized ovary, increased in size, and usually under- 

 going some change in texture and form, becomes 



582. The Pericarp, or Seed-vessel, The pericarp and the seeds it 

 contains together constitute the Fruit ; a term which has a more 

 extensive signification in botanical than in ordinary language, being 

 applied to all mature pistils, of whatever form, size, or texture. To 

 the fruit likewise belongs whate^'er organs may be adnate to the 

 pistils (468). Such incorporated parts, like the fleshy calyx of the 



Apple and Quince (Fig. 809, 812), sometimes 

 malve up the principal bulk of the fruit. 



583. Indeed, the calyx, when wholly free 

 from the pistil, sometimes becomes greatly 

 thickened and pulpy after flowering, aiid is 

 transformed into Avhat appears hke a berry ; 

 as in Gaultheria (Fig. 913), where the real 

 fruit is a dry pod within ; and in Strawberry 

 Elite (Fig. 1099), where the fleshy calyxes of 

 a head of flowers each surround a small seed- 

 like fruit, and together form a false multiple 

 fruit, resembling a strawberry. 



584. Even the strawberry itself is not a 

 fruit in the strict botanical sense : that is, the 

 edible substance is not a ripened pistil, nor a 

 cluster of pistils, but is the receptacle or ex- 

 tremity of the flower-stalk, greatly enlarged 

 and replete Avith delicious juice ; the true fruits 

 being the minute and seed-like ripened ovaries 

 scattered over its surface ; as plainly appears 



from a comparison of Fig. 558 with 559. Moreover, a mulberry, 



fig. 658. Vertical section of a forming strawberry, enlarged. 



FIG. 559. Similar section of cue half of a ripe strawberry, and of some of the small seed- 

 like fruits, or achenia, on its surface. 



