330 HOW CROPS GROW. 



kinds of Fruits. Of these we shall only adduce such as 

 are of common occurrence and belong to the farm. 



The Nut has a hard, leathery or bony indehiscent 

 shell, that usually contains a single seed. Examples are 

 the acorn, chestnut, beech-nut, and hazel-nut. The cup 

 of the acorn and the bur or shuck of the others is a sort 

 of fleshy calyx. 



The Stone-fruit, or Drupe, is a nut enveloped by a 

 fleshy or leathery coating, like the peach, cherry, and 

 plum, also the butternut and hickory-nut. Raspberries 

 and blackberries are clusters of small drupes. 



Pome is a term applied to fruits like the apple and 

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

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

 enormously enlarged and thickened calyx, whose with- 

 ered 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 cucum- 

 ber are of this kind. 

 ■ The Akene is a fruit containing a single seed which 

 does not separate from its dry envelop. The so-called 

 seeds of the composite plants — for example, the sunflower, 

 thistle, and dandelion — are alcenes. On removing the 

 outer husk or seed-vessel we flnd within the true seed. 

 Many akenes are furnished with a pappus, a downy or 

 hairy appendage, the remains of the calyx, as seen in the 

 thistle, which enables the seed to float and be carried 

 about in the wind. The fruit or grain of buckwheat is 

 akene-like. 



The Grains are properly fruits. Wheat, rye, and 

 maize consist of the seed and the seed-vessel closely 

 united. When these grains are ground, the bran that 



