THE FRUIT. 



95 



linilooular composite ovary contains one, few, or many seeds, this carpel, cell, or ovary 

 is said to be monospermous [monosperma) , oligospermous [oligospermaj, or many-seeded 

 {polysperma). The ripe ovary is called a pericarp {pericarpmm) ; we have already 

 described the three layers of which it is composed (figs. 15, 16), epicarp, endocarp, 

 and mesocwrp or sarcoearp. 



Changes caused by Maturation. — In ripening, the fruit undergoes changes, some 

 of which have been already mentioned : it may be dry, and then, according to its 

 consistency, it is said to be membranous, corky, coriaceous, woody, bony ; the latter 

 quality is found in the Filbert (fig. 233) ; 

 sometimes it becomes fleshy through the 

 abundant pulp of the seed ; ' in Belladonna 

 {&g. 567) the mesocarp is succulent; in the 

 Orange (fig. 568) the pulp consists of long 



501. Gooseberry. 



Fruit 



cut Yertically. 



608. Gneorum. 



Fruit cut 



Tertically (mag.). 



504. TribuluB. 



Fruit cut 



Tertically (mag.). 



602. Cassia. 



Portion of open 



fruit. 



606. Radish., 

 Flower cut vertically. 



spindle-shaped cells, fixed to the endocarp by one of their extremities, and free at 

 the other; in the Tomato it is the placenta, in the Gooseberry (fig. 501) and the 

 Pomegranate it is the testa itself of the seed which is pulpy. 



In fruits with a succulent mesocarp, as Plum, Cherry, Peach, Apricot, Walnut, 

 &c., the endocarp thickens at the expense of a portion of the mesocarp (figs. 16, 620), 

 becomes bony, and forms the stone (putamen). The septa sometimes disappear in 

 the pericarp; as in Lychnis (fig. 398) and other Garyophyllacece, where the rapid 

 growth of the walls of the ovary breaks and effaces them; in the Oak (fig. 400), 

 where one ovule stifles the other five, and destroys the three septa; in the Ash 

 (fig. 561), where one of the two cells contains a seed, while the other is reduced to 

 an almost imperceptible cavity by the destruction of the septum. Sometimes trans- 

 verse septa are developed in the ripening ovary ; these are horizontal expansions of 

 the endocarp and mesocarp, which sometimes become woody [Cassia, fig. 602) . In 

 Cneorum (fig. 503) and Tribulus (fig. 504), the endocarp and mesocarp are gradually 

 intruded from the inner wall of the ovary, so as to form oblique septa, which at 

 maturity divide the cavity into small superimposed cells. The membranous transverse 

 septa of the cells of the Radish pod (fig. 505), Baphanistrum, and some other Cruci- 

 feroe, are longitudinal septa which the growth of 'the seeds has driven to right and 

 left by the resistance of the endocarp ; in this case, the fruit dehisces transversely, 

 each segment containing one seed. 



Suture. ^The ventral suture [sutura ventralis) is the line indicated by the 



' TES" pulp rarely contributes to the formation by tempting birds, &c., and -it is often an aid to the 

 of the seed; it aids in the- dispersion of fruits germination of the seed.— En. 



