Fruit

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

in botany, a term applied to the ripened ovary and its contents, quite regardless of their being eatable or otherwise. In many instances, there are additions to the ovary in the form of the remains of some or all of the other parts of the flower. In the strawberry, the calyx remains, and is converted into a succulent substance, or that part of the fruit which is eaten. In the apple, both into fruit. The pineapple is composed of all the parts entering into the composition of the ovary, namely, bracts, calyx, corolla and ovary. The orange is a largely developed ovary, containing the seeds, and a succulent mass in which the refreshing juice is placed. Fruit is divided into two distinct parts, the seed and the pericarp, or investing substance. The pericarp is composed of three parts, or layers, one within the other. For example, the pericarp of the apple consists of an external layer, or skin, epicarp; the internal layer, endocarp; and the fleshy substance, sarcocarp, lying be tween them. Thus, the outer skin is the epicarp, the pulpy substance the sarcocarp, and the tough, thick covering to the seeds, the endocarp. The same relation is found in stone fruit, the shell of the nut being the endocarp. The epicarp, or outward covering, is less subject to variation than other parts; but the sarcocarp and endocarp assume every variety of form and consistence. The most common forms of fruit are, the pomum or apple, the drupe or peach, and plum; the glans, as the acorn; the pineapple, the fruit of which is a scaly berry, surmounted by a crown of spinous leaves. The legume, or pea; the siliqua, or pod, as in the mustard; and the bacca, or common currant, gooseberry, etc.