THE LIFE -HISTORY OF PLAXTS. 



305 



A calyx in such a position would he wholly anoma- 

 lous, were it not readily explicable by the cause 

 just mentioned. In the Strawberry (Fig. 94) the 

 true fruit consist of the little 

 pips or carpels, which bestrew 

 the surface, or are partly em- 

 bedded in the top of the flower- 

 stalk, " thalamus," or " recep- 

 tacle," as it is indifferently 

 called, and in which, after 



Fig, 95.— Easpberry, showing 

 the persistent calyx and the 

 numerous small fleshy fruits 

 aggregated on the di-y floral 



A Mulberry, a Pine-apple, or Fig, is not one fruit, it 

 is not the ripe state of any one flower, but it i.s 



stituent parts (Figs. 96, 97) into 

 one fleshy mass. Such fruits 

 are like " catkins," or inflores- 

 cences in which all the flowei> 

 have become fused into onf- 

 succulent mass. 



The effect of aU these varia- 



Fig. 96.— A section through a Fig. The 

 flower-stalk expands to form a top-shaped 

 cavity, from the sides of which the true 

 fruits proceed. 



Fi-:-. 97. — Mulberry. The 

 ■■ fi-uit " is here comxiosed of 

 a number of originally sepa- 

 vate flowers, all parts of which 

 have become more or les^ 

 fleshy, and ultimately com- 

 bined in one 



fertilisation, the constituent 

 cells swell and multiply, and 

 fill themselves with savoury 

 juices of their own manu- 

 facture. In the Bramble or 

 the tiaspberry (Fig. 95) the 

 case is altogether different. 

 Here each little fleshy pip 

 represents an entire carpel, 

 springing, not from a fleshy, 

 but from a dry receptacle. 

 We eat the luscious recep- 

 tacle of the Strawberry,", but 

 we throw away the corre- 

 sponding part in the Rasp- 

 berry. AVe swallow the pips 

 of the Strawberry, because 

 we cannot avoid doing so, 

 but if we could reject them 

 we should do so ; while in 

 the Raspberry we eat them 

 from choice. The pips of the 



latter fruit, in fact, are miniature stone fruits (drupes) . 



The fruit in all the cases hitherto mentioned has 

 consisted of the ripened carpels of one flower, with 

 or without the addition of other parts of that flower. 

 But other fruits are of a more complex character. 

 68 



Fig. 98. — Pod of 

 Wallflower burst- 

 ing bv two valves. 



tions is seen in the disper- 

 sion of the seed. Where 

 the "fruits" are light and 

 membranous they are wafted 

 away by the wind ; where 

 they are bony they fall t(. 

 the ground and slowly rot. 

 or they split into several 

 pieces (Figs. 98, 99), and 

 thus liberate the seed ; while 

 in the case of the fleshy 

 fruits the colour, jDerfume. 

 flavoiu\ are all so many 

 allurements to bii-ds or in- 

 sects, which here, as in tht^ 

 process of fertilisation, m 

 the pursuit of their own 

 selfish aims, are made to 

 fulfil an unconscious but 

 most important part in tht 

 great scheme of Xature. 

 Structurally, the ripenini* 

 of the fruit consists either in the .shrivelling of the 

 fruit from the drying up of the water, in its harden- 

 ing from the deposition of woody materials in the 

 constituent cells, or in its increased succulence from 

 the multiphcation of the cellular components. 



Fig-. 99. — Pod of 



bursting into 

 pieces. 



