From What Plant Parts Do Seeds or Fruit Develop?
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Flowers and Pollination
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Flowers of a plant are fertilized when pollen is transferred from bloom to bloom by insects feeding off of the flower's nectar. Inside the flower are ovules (unfertilized eggs) that grow into a seed once pollinated (fertilized).
The fruit, or the fleshy part that grows around the seed or seeds, is a fertilized ovary that grows as a protective layer around the seeds. Once the fruit matures, it will drop off the parent plant, which helps spread the seeds inside.
Seeds
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Consider seeds to be like fertilized eggs: They contain everything necessary for a new plant to grow from within, including an embryo, nourishment for the embryo and a protective outer covering to keep it safe until the plant is ready to grow in a harsher environment. The fruit isn't strictly necessary in a reproductive sense, but it acts to protect the fertilized eggs (seeds). Different fruits will also contain different numbers of seeds. For instance, apples and cherries contain fewer seeds than watermelons or pumpkins.
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Size and Development
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The size of a developing fruit depends on the size, number and nourishment needs of the seeds it contains. The more seeds that are fertilized, the bigger the fruit will grow so that it can encompass them all. And the bigger those seeds are, the larger the fruit becomes for the same reason. This is why there is variation among fruits, even those that are either similar or the same.
For instance, tomatoes which grow to be bigger than other, smaller tomatoes may simply have had more seeds inside them. Other factors, such as soil, water, and sunlight also play a part, but if all things are equal, than the seeds determine the size of the fruit.
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