§78 THE CAPSULE AND ITS KINDS. 



before they met with sufficient moisture to 

 vegetate. 



lo Capsula, a Capsule, is a dry seed-vessel 

 of a woody, coriaceous or membranous 

 texture, generally splitting into several 

 valves; more rarely discharging its con- 

 tents by orifices or pores, as in Campanula 

 and Papaver ; or falling off entire with 

 the seed. Internally it consists either of 

 one cell or several ; in the latter case the 

 parts which separate the, cells are called 

 dissepiment a , partitions. The central co- 

 lumn to which the seeds are usually at- 

 tached is named columella. See Datura 

 Stramonium, EngL Bot. t. 1288. 



Gartner, a writer of primary authority 

 on fruits and seeds, reckons several pecu- 

 liar kinds of Capsules, besides what are 

 generally understood as such ; these are 



Utriculus, a Little Bladder, which va- 

 ries in thickness, never opens by any 

 valves, and falls off with the seed. I be- 

 lieve it never contains more than one seed, 

 of which it is most commodiously, in bo- 

 tanical language, called an external coat, 



