ORGANS OF REPRODUCTION. 



55 



way helps to explain the fertility of the female plants in 

 Europe during the last forty years. 



This kind of propagation is called Parthenogenesis. 



Fruit, (h.fructus, G. carpos.) 



" Every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding 

 seed, unto you it shall be for meat." The practical ap- 

 plication of this sentence implies that when fruit is the 

 subject of common conversation, apples, pears, plums, 

 cherries, peaches, &c. come before the mind; but in 

 botany the word fruit has a very wide application, em- 

 bracing all conditions of the part of a plant containing 

 seeds, from the luscious peach to the dry spiny husks of 

 the thorn-apple, and the chaff-like produce of the lettuce 

 and carrot. The position and arrangement of the fruit is 

 in accordance with the inflorescence, but although nature 

 is generally profuse in flowers, perfect fruit is compa- 

 ratively rare ; this is due to several causes — imperfect fer- 

 tilization, the effect of climate, ravages of insects, and the 

 like. 



Eruits present many varieties of form, being globose, 

 cylindrical, angular, flat, spiral, &c. ; and in consistency 

 are solid, hard, fleshy ; or dry, husky, thin, thick, or 

 fibrous. In size they vary from less than a currant 

 to a large pumpkin, 2 to 3 feet in diameter ; and from the 

 caraway to the sashline-like snake gourd, 5 to 6 feet in 

 length. Eruits are also smooth or rough, as in goose- 

 grass; warty, as horse-chestnut; or ^ricfcty, as stramo- 

 nium. When ripe they are of a pale brown, yellow, or 

 red colour, some even black. 



The following are some of the principal names applied 

 to fruits : — 



Poma, succulent fruit, as apple, pear, and orange. 



