BOTANY. 99 
d. The Fruit. 
Various changes occur in the flower after fertilization, the principal of 
which consist in the enlargement of the ovary, which becomes the pericarp, 
and within this the development of the ovules into seeds containing the 
embryo. The other portions of the flower generally dry up and fall off, 
although some may be persistent. The term fruit, in all strictness, only 
applies to the mature ovary, with its contents ; although it sometimes includes 
other parts, as the bracts and floral envelopes. The anatomy of the fruit 
much resembles that of the ovary. The pericarp usually consists of three 
layers: the external or epicarp, the middle or mesocarp, and the internal or 
endocarp. In such fruits as the peach the mesocarp becomes much developed, 
forming the fleshy pulp, and hence called sarcocarp ; while the endocarp, 
thickened by woody matter, constitutes the putamen, or stone. The part of 
the pericarp attached to the peduncle is termed the base, that where the style 
or stigma existed being the apex. When the style remains in a hardened 
form the fruit is apiculate. As in the carpel, so in the ripe fruit, the ventral 
suture consists of the edges united towards the axis, the dorsal suture corres- 
ponding to the midrib. When.the sutures are united so firmly as not to give 
way when the fruit is ripe, this is said to be indehiscent ; dehiscent, when 
either suture opens. Indehiscent fruits are either dry, as in the nut, or 
fleshy, as in the cherry and apple. When the pericarp is closely incor- 
porated with the seed the fruit is pseudo-spermous. When fruits, composed 
of single carpels, open only by the sutures, the dehiscence is said to be 
sutural ; when composed of several carpels, the valves may separate 
through the dissepiments, and give rise to a septicidal dehiscence. When 
the valves separate, so as to leave the placentz in the centre, these may 
form a single column, called colwmellau. When dehiscence takes place along 
the dorsal sutures, and the separating valves carry the septa with them, 
the dehiscence is loculicidal; it is septifragal when the septa separate 
from the valves, and remain attached to the centre. The separation of the 
valves may take place from above downwards, or the reverse. In Umbelliferze 
the two carpels separate from the lower part of the axis, but remain attached 
to a prolongation of it, called a carpophore, or podocarp. In the Siliqua, 
or fruit of the Cruciferze, the valves separate from the base, leaving a central 
replum. 
Fruits may also open transversely, the dehiscence, in this case, being 
circumscissile. Dehiscence, again, may be effected by partial openings in 
the pericarp, called pores, which may be variously situated. 
Fruits may be formed by one flower, or by several combined. In the 
former case they are either apocarpous, with one mature carpel, or 
dialycarpous, with several separate free carpels. In the latter case they 
are sald to be syncarpous. An anthocarpous or multiple fruit is formed 
when the bracts and floral envelopes are combined with the ovaries of a 
syncarpous fruit. 
Apocarpous fruits, then, are formed of one or several free carpels, and may 
ICONOGRAPHIC ENCYCLOPEDIA.—VOL. II. 3 33 
