184 BOTANY 
enclosing the seeds. In the hawthorn, however, the 
carpels become stony. 
Ageregate fruits (Fig. 119), derived from a number 
of free carpels and consisting of a number of separate 
fruitlets, are called etarios. They may be either dry 
or succulent. 
1. The buttercup fruit is an etario of achenes. The 
strawberry, is also an etario of achenes, the small fruits 
popularly called the seeds, being scattered over the 
swollen fleshy receptacle, which forms the bulk of the 
fruit. The fruit of the brier consists of an etario of 
achenes enclosed in a fleshy receptacle and calyx tube. 
2. The fruit of the larkspur and columbine are 
etarios of follicles. 
3. Etarios of drupelets (little drupes) are seen in 
the raspberry, blackberry, and lawyer. 
Composite Fruits (Fig. 120) are formed from 
inflorescences. Such is the ease with the pineapple, 
mulberry, fig, and hop. : 
Protection is afforded to fruits in various ways. 
The chestnut and thorn apple (Datura) are guarded by 
their spines, the dock and all nuts by their hard 
coverings. Peas are suspended on slender stalks, and 
are thus rendered immune from the attacks of mice, 
while the fruit of the peanut, being buried under- 
geround, is concealed from most of its enemies. The 
acrid taste of green garden fruit successfully wards off 
the depredations of birds, but not those of many eating 
insects. 
SEED DISPERSAL. 
The protective function of the fruit is obvious and 
requires no comment, but the work done by the fruit 
in seed distribution is more varied and complicated. 
It is of great advantage to a plant to have its seed well 
distributed over a large area. In the first place a 
change of soil and situation is usually beneficial. Then 
