THE HOMOLOGIES OF FRUITS 



271 



special detail for the Acorn and the Ivy berry in the two 

 additional tables. These tables speak for themselves, and there 

 is no necessity to push the subject further here. 



Table showing the gradual Decrease in the Water-Contents of 

 Ivy Berries (Hedera Helix) as they Developed and Matured 

 AT Redland, Bristol, during the Winter i 908-1 909. 



(The collections were made by my sister, Mrs H. Mortimer, from the same plant and 

 weighed by her at once, the samples containing from forty to sixty berries. They were 

 weighed again by the author some months after.) ' 



^oie. — The reader is referred to Chapter XIX for other details respecting the growth 

 of the seed and its embryo. ' 



SUMMARY 



(i) Some of the most interesting problems connected with plant- 

 life lie behind the phenomena of the drying fruit. 



(2) But a comparative study in this direction brings to the front 

 preliminary considerations of importance, more especially those 

 concerned with the lack of true adjustment which prevails in the 

 general classification of fruits and with the comparison of fruits in the 

 different stages of their history (p. 2^9). 



(3) Observation on the drying of fruits shows us that when the 

 systematist speaks of a berry as fleshy and indehiscent and a capsule as 

 dry and dehiscent, he is contrasting a living with a dead fruit (p. 260). 



(4) We come also to discover the fallacy that may lie in the 

 distinction between suciculent and dry fruits, especially when it implies 



