THE FRUIT. 161 
In some plants the scattering of the seeds is assured by means 
rather difficult of explanation. Every one ‘ 
_ knows that by merely touching the fruit of 
the Balsamines their valves are suddenly £; 
thrown back, and the seeds are dispersed , 
with great force. This peculiarity has given 
to one species of this order of plants the 
common name of Touch-me-not, and the 
generic name of Jmpatiens. 
The capsullary and woody fruit of the 
Sandbox-tree (Fig. 240), an American tree 
of the order Euphorbiaceae, is composed of 
from twelve to eighteen cocci, which having 
become desseccated, open suddenly at the rig. 241—Fruit of the 
back, with two valves, and are detached from meer 
their axis with a kind of detonation. These fruits have actually been 
surrounded with iron wires, yet the force with which they expand 
has been such that the valves have been separated from each other. 
We will take our last example from a nearer source ; the seeds of 
the Geranium (Fig. 241) are enclosed in little membraneous cells, 
which are inserted in the lower part of an axis, which is elongated 
and supported by a filament coming from the summit. At 
maturity, this filament bends in a scroll or spirally, and lifts with 
it the case with the seed contained inside. Thus the fruit of the 
Geranium, or Crane’s-bill, met with in the woods and green lanes, 
resemble a sort of candelabra with five branches, hung from the 
summit of a central column. 
Fuiesuy Frutrs. 
When the parenchyma of the fruit is largely developed, and it 
swells with juice, the fruit is said to be fleshy. Man derives from 
this kind of fruit so great a part of his nourishment, that he 
has exclusively styled the trees furnishing it fruit trees. This 
singularly illogical use of the term might lead to the inference 
that the Apricot, the Peach, the Apple, and such like trees, alone 
produced fruit. There is an obvious disagreement in this case 
between science and sentiment ; a plants bear fruit. 
