A sliced apple plays tricks. Its pale, wet flesh, which most eaters call the fruit without hesitation, arises chiefly from the swollen floral base rather than from the ovary that held the flower's ovules. The core tells the truth. That compact inner chamber contains the botanical fruit, a set of carpels enclosing seeds behind papery walls.This is no pedantry. In a pome, the hypanthium and receptac...More