anate;
which is a hip in which the seeds have become surrounded with a radiant
juice, richer than claret wine; while the seed itself, within the generous
jewel, is succulent also, and spoken of by Tournefort as a "baie
succulente." The tube of the calyx, brown-russet like a large hip,
externally, is yet otherwise divided, and separated wholly from the
cinque-foiled, and cinque-celled rose, both in number of petal and division
of treasuries; the calyx has eight points, and nine cells. {226}

13. Lastly, in the orange, the fount of fragrant juice is interposed
between the seed and the husk. It is wholly independent of both; the
Aurantine rind, with its white lining and divided compartments, is the true
husk; the orange pips are the true seeds; and the eatable part of the fruit
is formed between them, in clusters of delicate little flasks, as if a
fairy's store of scented wine had been laid up by her in the hollow of a
chestnut shell, between the nut and rind; and then the green changed to
gold.

14. I have said '_lastly_'--of the orange, for fear of the reader's
weariness only; not as having yet represented, far less exhausted, the
variety of frutescent form. But these are the most important types of it;
and before I can explain the relation between these, and another, too often
confounded with them--the _granular_ form of the seed of grasses.--I must
give some account of what, to man, is far more important than the form--the
gift to him in fruit-food; and trial, in fruit-temptation.

* * * * *

{227}

CHAPTER XIV.

THE FRUIT GIFT.

1. In the course of the preceding chapter, I hope that the reader has
obtained, or may by a little patience both obtain and secure, the idea of a
great natural Ordinance, which, in the protection given to the part of
plants necessary to prolong their race, provides, for happier living
creatures, food delightful to their taste, and forms either amusing or
beautiful to their eyes. Whether in receptacle, calyx, or true husk,--in
the cup of the acorn, the fringe of the filbert, the down of the apricot,
or bloom of the plum, the powers of Nature consult quite other ends than
the mere continuance of oaks and plum trees on the earth; and must be
regarded always with gratitude more deep than wonder, when they are indeed
seen with human eyes and human intellect.

2. But in one family of plants, the _contents_ also of the seed, not the
envelope of it merely, are