86 FRUIT. 



sional modifications, every variety of fruit may be reduced to 

 these simple principles. 



145. The pericarp is the covering of the seed, whatever 

 may be its form or dimensions. It includes the ovary, and 

 whatever may be attached to it, which goes to make up the 

 seed-vessel. It varies in dimensions from the covering of the 

 minute seeds of grasses to the large fleshy pericarps of the 

 Cucurbitacese, which sometimes attain to several feet in diame- 

 ter. Its composition is not less various, from the finest and 

 most delicate membranes to the coarsest and roughest of veget- 

 able productions — from the softest pulp to the hard bony cover- 

 ing of the kernel of the peach. 



146. The pericarp consists of three parts — the epicarp, which 

 is the outer covering, and corresponds to the skin ; the sarco- 

 carp, the middle portion, which constitutes the flesh ; and the 

 endocarp or put amen, the inner coat or shell. By the various 

 modifications which these several parts undergo in the course 

 of development, most of the fruits, however widely they may 

 differ in appearance, may be easily conceived to originate from 

 a common type. 



147. In the Peach, for example, the skin, which in many 

 cases may be easily removed, is the epicarp in its natural state; 

 the fleshy portion, which is eaten, is the sarcocarp, which is the 

 parenchymous portion of the leaf excessively developed ; the 

 stone of the peach is the endocarp remarkably condensed and 

 hardened. The Cherry and similar fruits are reducible on the 

 same principles. The Apple is a little differently constructed ; 

 the epicarp is in its natural state, but the sarcocarp consists of 

 the parenchymous portion of the calyx and ovary united. By 

 making a transverse section of an apple, the outlines of the 

 ovary may be seen, distinguished by points, which are the 

 cords formed by the vessels and woody fiber of the midrib of 

 the leaves which compose the carpels. The hard layer, which 

 immediately surrounds the seed, is the endocarp. 



148. The fruit being the perfected ovary, it of course ought 

 to bear the mark of the style or stigma; and it is of import- 

 ance that the student bear this in mind, as it will often enable 

 him to distinguish seed from fruit, as there are many exam- 

 ples which the common observer would call seeds, but which in 

 reality are fruits, consisting of a pericarp, and a seed within it, as 

 in the Umbelliferae and Composite. 



145. What is the pericarp? How does it vary? — 146. Of how many 

 parts does it consist £ What is the epicarp? Sarcocarp? Endocarp? — 

 147. Explain the terms from the peach. The chcrrv. The apple. — 148. 

 What ought the fruit to bear ? What fruit do we call seeds ? 



