
PRUTLS 61 
CHAPTER XI 
FRUITS 
AFTER fertilisation, the ripened ovary forms the fruit. In 
many cases other parts of the flower, most usually the re- 
ceptacle, are affected by fertilisation, and take part in the 
formation of the fruit. 
A flower, which consists of one carpel, or in which the 
carpels are united to each other, forms a single fruit, as in the 
Pea, Lily, Wallflower, Violet, Foxglove ; but where a flower 
has several carpels which do not unite to each other, one flower 
forms several simple fruits, and the product of each flower is 
then called a compound fruit: this occurs in the Buttercup, 
Blackberry, Rose. 
Fruits may be either dry or succulent, dehiscent or indehis- 
cent. A succulent fruit is fleshy, such as the Gooseberry, Apple, 
or hip of Rose; a dry fruit is one in which the seed-vessel in 
time becomes quite dry, as the pod of Laburnum, or the fruit 
of the Buttercup. A dehiscent fruit opens in late summer, or 
in autumn, to let out its seeds; on the other hand, in an 
indehiscent fruit the seed is retained in the seed-vessel until 
ready for germination, _ 
ey. The following are the chief types of Dry 
Dehiscent Fruits: 
Fruits. 
1. Legume, characteristic of the Pea and Bean 
family. If the pod of a Laburnum be examined, the remains 
- of the calyx are seen just above the stalk: this shows that 
the fruit is formed from a superior ovary. When squeezed 
the pod splits into two pieces, called valves. The seeds are 
then seen to lie alternately in each valve, and to be attached 
along the margin, where the edges of the carpellary leaf bear- 
ing the ovules had united ; the opposite edge of the fruit is 
the midrib of the carpel. A pod may therefore be defined as 
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