i22 THE CAl'SULE AND ITS KINDS. 



«eed. I believe it never contains more than one seed, 

 of which it is most commodiously, in botanical lan- 

 guage, called an external coat, rather than a Capsule. 

 Gsertner applies it to Chenopodmm^ as well as to Cle- 

 matis^ &c. In the former it seems a Pellicula, in the 

 latter a Testa^ as we shall hereafter explain. 



Samara is indeed a species of Capsule, of a com- 

 pressed form and dry coriaceous texture, with one or 

 two cells, never bursting, but falling off entire, and 

 dilated into a kind of wing at the summit or sides. It 

 is seen in the Elm, the Maple, the Ash, Engl. Bot. 

 t. 1692, and some other plants. This term however 

 may well be dispensed with, especially as it is the 

 name of a genus in Linnseus ; an objection to which 

 Cotyledon too is liable. 



Folliculus^ a Follicle or Bag, reckoned by Linnaeus 

 a separate kind of seed-vessel from the Capsule, ought 

 perhaps rather to be esteemed a form of the latter, as 

 Gaertner reckons it. This is of one valve and one 

 cell, bursting lengthwise, and bearing the seeds on or 

 near its edges, or on a receptacle parallel therewith. 

 Instances are found in Vinca^ t. 514, Paonia, t. 1513, 

 and Embothrium, Bot. of New Holland, (109) t. 7 — 

 10. 



Cocciim of Gaertner, separated by him from cap- 

 sules, is a dry seed-vessel, more or less aggregate, not 

 solitary, whose sides are elastic, projecting the seeds 

 with great force, as in Euphorbia ; also Boronia, 

 Tracts on Nat. History, t. 4 — 7. This seems by no 



(108) [The seeds of ./^sc^p/iz'as and Jjionjnum are contained in 

 Follicles.] 



