FRUIT AND SEED

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32612, 21 May 1971, Page 11

FRUIT AND SEED

There is considerable I looseness in the use of the t words “fruit” and "seed.” The s definition of a fruit in a i botanical sense provides the ' answer to what is, and what 1 is not, a fruit To put every- ■ thing in correct perspective ; it is perhaps advisable to ' start at the beginning of it all with a. botany lesson. A bud opens to reveal a flower which generally has both male and female organs, known as anthers and stigma respectively. By a process known as pollination pollen is transferred from the anthers to the stigma of the same or of another flower. This is brought about principally in two main ways—by wind or by insects. Fertilisation is then brought about by pollen absorption which subsequently results in the fusion of the male and female gametes in the ovules of the ovary, which usually is the bulbous portion at the base of the flower. As a result of fertilisation the ovary ripens to form the fruit On examination a fruit will be seen to bear two scars—where it was attached to the flower stalk and the other marking the position once occupied by the stigma. The ripened ovary contains ovules which develop into the seed. The seed has one scar where it was attached to the wall of the fruit. Fruits are classified according to the number of ovaries involved in their formation

and further grouped into fleshy fruits and dry fruits which are divided into further division.

Fleshy fruits are subdivided ■ into (1) Berries, of fleshy skins (e.g. tomato); hard rind, such as cucurbits; and leather-rinded (citrus). (2) Drupes—succulent fruit with a single seed—stone fruits. (3) Pomes such as apples, pears and quince. Dry fruits comprise dehiscent fruits (splitting pods) and indehiscent which includes most of those which do not split open when ripe, with certain exceptions that are included in the first group. Thus, technically, the following are all fruits; cucumbers, tomatoes, blackberries, cereals, grass “heads,” peppers, the pods of peas and beans and whole walnuts, to give but a few examples.