THE FRUIT. 157 
the golden apples of the Hesperides; the delicate corolla of the 
cherry-tree is followed by the purpled globes of its fruit. The 
verdure of our corn fields, ripened by the summer’s sun, now 
bend under the weight of the golden grain. We can now admire 
the soft down of the peach, the enormous globes of the melon- 
tribe, the firm and juicy pulp of the sweet-tasting plum, the 
nutritious substance of the legumes, the purple bloom of the 
grape, gilded by the autumnal sun! If flowers awake in us a 
feeling of happiness and joy, fruits bring with them the promise 
of abundance and wealth. 
When fecundation is effected, life is concentrated in the ovules 
and in the ovary, enclosing and protecting them. These organs 
continue to grow, and soon present new characteristics. The ovule 
becomes the seed, the ovary becomes the pericarp, and the two 
together constitute the fruit. The fruit is, then, the ovary which 
has ripened, or sef, as the gardeners say. 
The appearance of the fruit differs according as the ovary is free 
or adherent. In the former case, the fruit only shows on its surface 
a scar on the style, and sometimes at its base the remains of the 
calyx, the corolla, and the androceum. In the second, the fruit 
presents at its surface, and near the summit, the scars left at the 
insertion of the sepals, petals, and stamens. Thus it is, that an 
apple, a quince, or a gooseberry, all resulting from the ripening of 
an adherent ovary, are provided with an eye, which is completely 
wanting in the plum, the cherry, and the peach, these latter fruits 
resulting from the ripening of a free ovary. 
“The analogy between fruits and leaves,” says A. de Jussieu, 
“is as much shown in their nutrition.as in their outward characters. 
Fruits, like leaves, though in a less degree, when acted upon by 
light, take up carbonic acid from the surrounding air, and throw 
off oxygen; during the night, on the contrary, they take up 
oxygen and throw off carbonic acid. Their life passes through 
the same phases; their tissues, at first soft and rich in juices, 
gradually solidify, and at a certain period begin to dry up, changing 
their green hue for some other, either that of the dead leaf, or one 
of the various tints, analogous to those assumed in autumn by 
certain leaves ; the withered pericarp remaining attached to the 
tree, or falling to pieces, drops to the ground.” 
