We see that the pistils of this fruit do not remain small and dry, as with the strawberry. No, indeed! their little seedboxes grow bigger and juicier every day, and they turn from green to red and from red to black. They do not remain hard to the touch, but become so soft that a slight pressure will bruise them and stain your fingers purple. And we enjoy eating the full-grown blackberry (Fig. 249) because a quantity of these juicy seedboxes are so packed upon the juicy flower cushion that together they make a delicious mouthful (Figs. 247, 248). [Illustration: FIG. 247] [Illustration: FIG. 248] [Illustration: FIG. 249] The flower cushion of the blackberry is long and narrow, not broad and flat like that of the strawberry. So do not forget that in the strawberry we enjoy eating the ripened flower cushion, while in the blackberry the juicy seedboxes give to the fruit more of its size and flavor than does the flower cushion. [Illustration: Blackberries on the vine] ANOTHER COUSIN Here we see a branch from the raspberry bush (Fig. 250). How is the raspberry unlike both strawberry and blackberry? Let us place side by side these three berries (Figs. 251, 252, 253). [Illustration: FIG. 250] [Illustration: FIG. 251] [Illustration: FIG. 252] [Illustration: FIG. 253] Once more we observe that the strawberry is the flat flower cushion grown big and juicy. Again we see that the seedboxes of the blackberry packed upon the swollen flower cushion make up much of the fruit. But in the raspberry we find that the red, ripe seedboxes alone make the berry which is so good to eat. When we pick this raspberry, we find that the flower cushion remains upon the plant, instead of coming off in our fingers and helping to make a luscious morsel, as with the other two fruits (Figs. 254, 255). [Illustration: FIG. 254] [Illustration: FIG. 255] I hope you will remember how these three berries differ one from another. Why the blossoms of these three plants grow into berries in three different ways, we do not know; but our time has been well spent if we remember that they do change in these three ways. The more we see and question and learn, the more pleasure we shall find in our own lives, and the better able we shall be to make life pleasant for others. [Illustration: Blossom and berry] [Illustration: Peas] PEA BLOSSOMS AND PEAS The Pea family is a large one, and it is worth our while to find out what plan it uses in flower building. Let us look at a pea blossom and see of what parts it is made up. “There is the green cup, or calyx,” you say. Yes, that is plain enough. It is cut up into five little leaves. “And there is a circle of flower leaves, which makes the corolla.” Let us pull apart both calyx and corolla, and place the separate leaves as in the picture (Fig. 256). The five smaller leaves, the ones marked _ca_, are the green of the calyx.