 |  | Better Farming Series 03 - The Plant: the Flower (FAO - INADES, 1976, 29 p.) | |||
 |  | The fruit and the seed | |||
|  | (introduction...) | |||
| | Mango | |||
| | Papaya | |||
| | Groundnut | |||
| | Rice | |||
| | Summary | |||
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Plants are not all alike, Roots, stems, leaves, flowers are different. The fruits too are different.
The mango, cocoa pod, grains of maize, the avocado, papaya and cotton boll are all fruits. But they are not alike.
Mango
The fruit of the mango is covered with a hard skin.
The flesh is underneath this skin. It comes from the ovary of the flower. It is yellow, juicy, good to eat. It covers the seed.
The seed is big and hard. It comes from the ovule of the flower. It contains a germ.
In the ground the germ can produce a mango tree.
Papaya cut in half
The fruit of the papaya tree is covered with a very thin
skin.
The flesh is underneath this skin. It is yellow, juicy, good to eat. It
covers very many seeds. Each seed contains a germ. In the ground the germ can
produce a papaya
tree.
Ground nut
The fruit of the groundnut is covered with a shell. This shell is yellow; it dries when taken out of the ground.
It covers one or more seeds. Each seed contains a germ. In the ground the germ can produce a groundnut plant.
Rice
Each grain of rice is a fruit.
The fruit of rice consists of
two parts: the seed and fine, dry husks.
Each grain contains a germ. In the
ground the germ can produce a rice
plant.
The flesh of the papaya and the mango, the shell of the
groundnut and the husk of rice contain one or more seeds.
All fruits consist
of a covering containing one or more seeds.
We eat or sow only the seeds and
not the coverings of millet, groundnuts, cotton or rice.
Removing the
coverings of millet or sorghum is called threshing.
Removing the covering of
cotton is called ginning.
Removing the covering of groundnuts is called
shelling.
Removing the covering of rice is called husking.
Threshing,
ginning, shelling or husking can be done by hand in the traditional way or by
machine.
For instance, there are ginning mills for cotton.
We shall have
more to say on this in the courses on particular
crops.
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