23 
Classification of Fruits. 
The author of almost every botanical book has Ms own ideas as to the 
classification of fruits. There are very graafc difficulties in the way, arising from 
different points of view, and what I submit is not so much a scheme of classification 
as a convenient arrangement for most of the fruits which hive more or less intcresb 
for Australians. 
We can divide f rails into dry and succulent, and into dehiscent and indehiscent. 
A fruit is dehiscent if it bursts when ripe and lets out the seed. Ex. Wattle pod. 
A fruit is indehiscent when it does not open when ripe, but falls off with the 
seeds. Ex. Peach. 
The following tabular classification of fiuits I have copied from Henry 
Kraemer's "Textbook of Botany and Pharmacognosy " (Lippincott). 
The classification according to pistil will be understood from what has been 
just stated. My classification, though not intended to be so strictly scientific as that 
of Mr. Kraemer's, may have some utility from a popular point of view, while 
points of departure of the two groupings can be seen in a moment. 
[Etcerio is that class of fruit of which the strawberry is an excellent 
representative. 
A Utricle is an aohcnc with a loose pericarp as in Chenopodium (a genus of 
Saltbushes).] 
From a single 
flower. 
A. With a com- 
pound Pistil. 
Dry 
a. Indehiscent - 
B. With a simple 
Pistil. 
fleshy 
b. Dehiscent ... Dry 
'a. Indehiscent . Fleshy 
b. Dehiscent ... Dry 
From a number of flowers 
n 
(Kraemer.) 
Achene. 
Caryopsis. 
Cremocarp. 
Nut. 
Samara. 
Utricle. 
"Berry. 
Drupe. 
Etaerio. 
Hesperidium. 
Pepo. 
Pome. 
Capsule. 
Follicle. 
. Drupe. 
/Follicle. 
' (JLegume. 
("Strobile or Cone. 
, < Sorosis. 
[_Synconium. 
