377. Of Multiple or Collective Fruits, which are properly masses of fruits aggregated into one body (as is seen in the Mulberry (Fig. 408), Pine-apple, etc.), there are two kinds with special names and of peculiar structure. [Illustration: Fig. 405. A fig-fruit when young. 406. Same in section. 407. Magnified portion, a slice, showing some of the flowers.] [Illustration: Fig. 408. A mulberry. 409. One of the grains younger, enlarged; seen to be a pistillate flower with calyx becoming fleshy. 410. Same, with fleshy calyx cut across.] 378. =The Syconium or Fig-fruit= (Fig. 405, 406) is a fleshy axis or summit of stem, hollowed out, and lined within by a multitude of minute flowers, the whole becoming pulpy, and in the common fig, luscious. 379. =The Strobile or Cone= (Fig. 411), is the peculiar multiple fruit of Pines, Cypresses, and the like; hence named _Coniferæ_, viz. cone-bearing plants. As already shown (313), these cones are _open pistils_, mostly in the form of flat scales, regularly overlying each other, and pressed together in a spike or head. Each scale bears one or two naked seeds on its inner face. When ripe and dry, the scales turn back or diverge, and in the Pine the seed peels off and falls, generally carrying with it a wing, a part of the lining of the scale, which facilitates the dispersion of the seeds by the wind (Fig. 412, 413). In Arbor-Vitæ, the scales of the small cone are few, and not very unlike the leaves. In Cypress they are very thick at the top and narrow at the base, so as to make a peculiar sort of closed cone. In Juniper and Red Cedar, the few scales of the very small cone become fleshy, and ripen into a fruit which closely resembles a berry. [Illustration: Fig. 411. Cone of a common Pitch Pine. 412. Inside view of a separated scale or open carpel; one seed in place: 413, the other seed.] Section XV. THE SEED. 380. Seeds are the final product of the flower, to which all its parts and offices are subservient. Like the ovule from which it originates, a seed consists of coats and kernel. [Illustration: Fig. 414. Seed of a Linden or Basswood cut through lengthwise, and magnified, the parts lettered: _a_, the hilum or scar; _b_, the outer coat; _c_, the inner; _d_, the albumen; _e_, the embryo.] 381. =The Seed-coats= are commonly two (320), the outer and the inner. Fig. 414 shows the two, in a seed cut through lengthwise. The outer coat is often hard or crustaceous, whence it is called the _Testa_, or shell of the seed; the inner is almost always thin and delicate. [Illustration: Fig. 415. A winged seed of the Trumpet-Creeper.] [Illustration: Fig. 416. One of Catalpa, the kernel cut to show the embryo.] [Illustration: Fig. 417. Seed of Milkweed, with a _Coma_ or tuft of long silky hairs at one end.]