THE HOMOLOGIES OF FRUITS 259 



berries we are likely to begin with a misconception. The dry, Misconcep. 

 husky, symmetrical fruit of Baningtonia speciosa, such as the from^*"^ 

 currents disperse over the coral islands of the Pacific, is a dried ^f ^^fe'aat 

 berry, and as such is only to be compared with the shrivelled are not in the 

 fruit of the Gooseberry. This lack of adjustment is frequently 

 met with in comparing the stages of fruits. Take, for 

 instance, the distinction which the systematist usually draws 

 between a berry, as fleshy and indehiscent, and a capsule, as 

 dry and dehiscent. Here we are contrasting the air-dried 

 capsule with the moist berry, two quite diflFerent stages in the 

 history of these fruits. Naturally, the true correlative of the 

 dry dehiscent capsule would be the shrivelled berry, whilst the 

 ripe berry would find its homologue in the full-grown moist 

 capsule as we find it living on the plant. This relation 

 between the berry and the capsule has been already dealt with 

 in Chapter XI. The necessities of the systematist are partly 

 responsible for the incongruities in the comparison of fruits, 

 since he gives a place to the dry fruit that retains its shape, 

 but refuses to recognise as on the same footing the dried-up 

 berry or the shrivelled drupe. But part of the blame must 

 lie with one's natural repugnance to the shrivelling process, 

 seemingly so significant of inutility and death. Let but the 

 form be preserved, even though the life of the fruit has gone, 

 and we become apt to attach importance to a distinction which 

 is purely accidental and in no sense ordinal in character. 



These remarks do not at all exaggerate the lack of true 

 adjustment which prevails in the general classifications of 

 fruits. It is far from easy to see how this can be avoided in 

 practical systematic botany, but the inconsistency remains. 

 There lies beside me The Handbook of the British Flora, by 

 Bentham and Hooker (5th edit., 1887), and there I read 

 (p. 2^) that fruits are generally divided into "succulent" and Thedistinc- 

 " dry," the first being usually indehiscent, whilst the second by afe^*'"* 

 are often dehiscent and open at maturity. The succulent systematist 

 fruits are there typified by the berry and the drupe, and succulent 

 the dry fruits by the capsule, legume, achene, etc. Of'fraits.'^^ 



