FRUIT (through the French from the Lat. fructus; frui, to enjoy), in its widest sense, any product of the soil that can be enjoyed by man or animals; the word is so used constantly in the Bible, and extended, as a Hebraism, to offspring or progeny of man and of animals, in such expressions as “the fruit of the body,” “of the womb,” “fruit of thy cattle” (Deut. xxviii. 4), &c., and generally to the product of any action or effort. Between this wide and frequently figurative use of the word and its application in the strict botanical sense treated below, there is a popular meaning, regarding the objects denoted by the word entirely from the standpoint of edibility, and differentiating them roughly from those other products of the soil, which, regarded similarly, are known as vegetables. In this sense “fruit” is applied to such seed-envelopes of plants as are edible, either raw or cooked, and are usually sweet, juicy or of a refreshing flavour. But applications of the word in this sense are apt to be loose and shifting according to the fashion of the time.
Fruit, in the botanical sense, is developed from the flower as the result of fertilization of the ovule. After fertilization various changes take place in the parts of the flower. Those more immediately concerned in the process, the anther and stigma, rapidly wither and decay, while the filaments and style often remain for some time; the floral envelopes become dry, the petals fall, and the sepals are either deciduous, or remain persistent in an altered form; the ovary becomes enlarged, forming the pericarp; and the ovules are developed as the seeds, containing the embryo-plant. The term fruit is strictly applied to the mature pistil or ovary, with the seeds in its interior; but it often includes other parts of the flower, such as the bracts and floral envelopes. Thus the fruit of the hazel and oak consists of the ovary enveloped by the bracts; that of the apple and pear, of the ovary and floral receptacle; and that of the pine-apple, of the whole inflorescence. Such fruits are sometimes distinguished as pseudocarps. In popular language, the fruit includes all those parts which exhibit a striking change as the result of fertilization. In general, the fruit is not ripened unless fertilization has been effected; but cases occur as the result of cultivation in which the fruit swells and becomes to all appearance perfect, while no seeds are produced. Thus, there are seedless oranges, grapes and pineapples. When the ovules are unfertilized, it is common to find that the ovary withers and does not come to maturity; but in the case of bananas, plantains and bread-fruit, the non-development of seeds seems to lead to a larger growth and a greater succulence of fruit.
The fruit, like the ovary, may be formed of a single carpel or of several. It may have one cell or cavity, being unilocular; or many, multilocular, &c. The number and nature of the divisions depend on the number of carpels and the extent to which their edges are folded inwards. The appearances presented by the ovary do not always remain permanent in the fruit. Great changes are observed to take place, not merely as regards the increased size of the ovary, its softening or hardening, but also in its internal structure, owing to the suppression, additional formation or enlargement of parts. Thus, in the ash (fig. 1) an ovary with two cells, each containing an ovule attached to a central placenta, is changed into a unilocular fruit with one seed; one ovule becomes abortive, while the other, g, gradually enlarging until the septum is pushed to one side, unites with the walls of the cell, and the placenta appears to be parietal. In the oak and hazel, an ovary with three and two cells respectively, and two ovules in each, produces a one-celled fruit with one seed. In the coco-nut, a trilocular and triovular ovary produces a one-celled, one-seeded fruit. This abortion may depend on the pressure caused by the development of certain ovules, or it may proceed from non-fertilization of all the ovules and consequent non-enlargement of the carpels. Again, by the growth of the placenta, or the folding inwards of parts of the carpels, divisions occur in the fruit which did not exist in the ovary. In Cathartocarpus Fistula a one-celled ovary is changed into a fruit having each of its seeds in a separate cell, in consequence of spurious dissepiments being produced horizontal from the inner wall of the ovary. In flax (Linum) by the folding inwards of the back of the carpels a five-celled ovary becomes a ten-celled fruit. In Astragalus the folding inwards of the dorsal suture converts a one-celled ovary into a two-celled fruit; and in Oxytropis the folding of the ventral suture gives rise to a similar change. The development of cellular or pulpy matter, and the enlargement of parts not forming whorls of the flower, frequently alter the appearance of the fruit, and render it difficult to discover its formation. In the gooseberry (fig. 29), grape, guava, tomato and pomegranate, the seeds nestle in pulp formed by the placentas. In the orange the pulpy matter surrounding the seeds is formed by succulent cells, which are produced from the inner partitioned lining of the pericarp. In the strawberry the receptacle becomes succulent, and bears the mature carpels on its convex surface (fig. 2); in the rose there is a fleshy hollow receptacle which bears the carpels on its concave surface (fig. 3). In the juniper the scaly bracts grow up round the seeds and become succulent, and in the fig (fig. 4) the receptacle becomes succulent and encloses an inflorescence.
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Fig. 1.—Samara or winged fruit of Ash (Fraxinus). 1, Entire, with its wing a; 2, lower portion cut transversely, to show that it consists of two cells; one of which, l, is abortive, and is reduced to a very small cavity, while the other is much enlarged and filled with a seed g. | ||
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Fig. 2.—Fruit of the Strawberry (Fragaria vesca), consisting of an enlarged succulent receptacle, bearing on its surface the small dry seed-like fruits (achenes). (After Duchartre.) | ||
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From Strasburger’s Lehrbuch der Botanik, by permission of Gustav Fischer. | ||
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Fig. 3.—Fruit of the Rose cut vertically. s’, Fleshy hollowed receptacle; s, persistent sepals; fr, ripe carpels; e, stamens, withered. | ||
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Fig. 4.—Peduncle of Fig (Ficus Carica), ending in a hollow receptacle enclosing numerous male and female flowers. | ||
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Fig. 5.—Fruit of Cherry (Prunus Cerasus) in longitudinal section. ep, Epicarp; m, mesocarp; en, endocarp. | ||
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From Strasburger’s Lehrbuch der Botanik, by permission of Gustav Fischer. | ||
The pericarp consists usually of three layers, the external, or epicarp (fig. 5, ep); the middle, or mesocarp, m; and the internal, or endocarp, en. These layers are well seen in such a fruit as the peach, plum or cherry, where they are separable one from the other; in them the epicarp forms what is commonly called the skin; the mesocarp, much developed, forms the flesh or pulp, and hence has sometimes been called sarcocarp; while the endocarp, hardened by the production of woody cells, forms the stone or putamen immediately covering the kernel or seed. The pulpy matter found in the interior of fruits, such as the gooseberry, grape and others, is formed from the placentas, and must not be confounded with the sarcocarp. In some fruits, as in the nut, the three layers become blended together and are indistinguishable. In bladder senna (Colutea arborescens) the pericarp retains its leaf-like appearance, but in most cases it becomes altered both in consistence and in colour. Thus in the date the epicarp is the outer brownish skin, the pulpy matter is the mesocarp or sarcocarp, and the thin papery-like lining is the endocarp covering the hard seed. In the medlar the endocarp becomes of a stony hardness. In the melon the epicarp and endocarp are very thin, while the mesocarp forms the bulk of the fruit, differing in texture and taste in its external and internal parts. The rind of the orange consists of epicarp and mesocarp, while the endocarp forms partitions in the interior, filled with pulpy cells. The part of the pericarp attached to the peduncle is the base, and the point where the style or stigma existed is the apex. This latter is not always the apparent apex, as in the case of the ovary; it may be lateral or even basilar. The style sometimes remains in a hardened form, rendering the fruit apiculate; at other times it falls off, leaving only traces of its existence. The presence of the style or stigma serves to distinguish certain single-seeded pericarps from seeds.
