The Fruit
The fruit is the ripened ovary. After the ovules have been fertilized, the ovary is called a pericarp. Fruits may be either fleshy or dry.
The following are some of the principal kinds of dry fruits:—
A capsule is a dry, dehiscent (splitting) fruit, composed of more than one carpel or division;
an akene is a small, dry, hard, one-celled, one-seeded indehiscent fruit;
a follicle is a pod formed from a single pistil, dehiscing along the ventral suture only;
a legume is a simple pericarp, opening by both seams.
a samara is a dry, indehiscent fruit, having a wing.
The following are some of the principal kinds of fleshy fruits:—
A pome is a fruit like an apple or pear;
the pepo, or gourd, fruit is like that of the melon, squash, etc.;
the drupe is like that of the cherry, plum, and peach;
the berry is like that of the grape, currant, and tomato.
Aggregate fruits are those in which a cluster of carpels, all of one flower, are crowded upon the receptacle into one mass; as in the raspberry and blackberry.