CHAPTER XIX 
THE FRUIT! 
218. What constitutes a Fruit. — It is not easy to make 
a short and simple definition of what botanists mean by 
the term fruit. It has very little to do with the popular 
use of the word. Briefly stated, the definition may be 
given as follows: The fruit consists of the matured ovary 
and contents, together with 
any intimately connected 
parts. Botanically speak- 
ing, the bur of beggar’s-ticks 
(Fig. 148), the three-cornered 
grain of buckwheat, or such 
true grains as wheat and 
oats, are as much fruits as 
is an apple or a peach. 
219. Indehiscent and Fic. 136. Akenes of a Buttercup. 
Dehiscent Fruits. — All of A, head of akenes; B, section of a 
Ph aorries crietdarach athe single akene (magnified). a, seed. 
next three sections are indehiscent, that is, they remain 
closed after ripening. Dehiscent fruits when ripe open in 
order to discharge their seeds; three modes of dehiscence 
are shown in Fig. 146. The three classes which immedi- 
ately follow Sect. 222 are all dehiscent. 
1See Gray’s Structural Botany, Chapter VII, also Kerner and Oliver’s 
Natural History of Plants, Vol. Il, pp. 427-438. 
185 
