29 
AGGREGATE AND MULTIPLE FRUITS. 
In a number of cases we have a congeries of fruits massed together, forming 
what is looked upon by a non-botanist as a single fruit. 
Now these congeries may arise in two ways : 
1 . From the carpels of a single flower. 
2. From a number of flowers crowded together. 
1. Is termed an Aggregate fruit. 
Examples are Buttercup (Ranunculus); Rose; Strawberry (the individual 
fruits seated on a fleshy receptacle); Raspberry; Blackberry; Custard Apple. 
2. Is called a Multiple or Collective fruit. Sometimes called an Infrucfcescence 
and less frequently a Sorosis (Greek for cluster), e.g., Pineapple and Mulberry (consisting 
of a head of fruits, each consisting of a one-seeded, indehiscent nut, enclosed in four 
juicy perianth-pieces). 
Pine-cone or Strobilus.A. spike covered with woody scales or bracts, each with 
two seeds at its base. 
Fig (Ficus); sometimes called a Receptacle or Synconus. See Plate 2, Part 1. 
(Here we have a pulpy, hollowed axis, enclosing a number of achenes.) 
In the She Oaks (Casuarina) we have the fruit a cylindrical cone, formed of the 
enlarged, woody bracts, which open as valves when ripe. The " seeds " are nuts, 
laterally compressed, smooth and shining, produced at the apex into a membranous 
wing. See Plates in Vols. 2 and 3 of the present work. 
The Seed. 
All plants to attain their fullest development should produce seed, which to be 
fertile must have been fertilised either naturally or by artificial means. 
When the thought that all plants exist for this purpose is fully grasped by the 
seed-collector (I hope to live to see him paid by results, proved in the Seed Testing 
Laboratory), he will be the better enabled to understand the reason of the following : 
(1) Not to collect seeds from stunted trees nor trees not characteristic. .;..vyi 
(2) To gather seeds from those trees facing the prevailing winds, which aid 
fertilisation, and thus secure a greater percentage of fertile seeds. 
(3) Not to gather seed from an isolated specimen of a species growing among 
other species of the same genus, as it has been proved so often that cross 
fertilisation may take place, resulting in the alteration of the progeny; 
and this may only be found out after many years by a disappointed cultivator. 
Collection of Seed. Most seeds have to be gathered before they are fully ripe 
(this applies chiefly to dehiscent fruits) or else they cannot readily be saved. For 
example, the capsules of the Bed Cedar (Cedrela australis) and the follicles of the Silky 
Oak (Grevillea robusta), also the Jacaranda, suddenly open, and their winged seeds fly 
