312 ORGANOGRAPHY. 



space as possible to this intricate Subject. Those who wish to 

 investigate the matter further than my Hmits will allow me to 

 do, would do well to consult Lindley's Introduction to Botany, 

 for of all recent writers upon Carpology, this author has done 

 most to reduce a perfect chaos to at least some degree of regu- 

 larity, and I have accordingly made much use of his labours in 

 defining the diflterent kinds of fruits. The classification how- 

 ever, adopted here, difi'ers in some particulars from Dr. Lind- 

 ley's. We have taken the pistil as our guide, and have accord- 

 ingly used the terms when applied to fruits, in precisely the 

 same sense as previously defined in treating of that organ. 



The leading divisions of the classification here adopted, are 

 as folloAvs: — 



1 . Fruits formed by a Single Flower. 



a. Simple Fruits. 



b. Apocarpous Fruits. 



c. Syncarpous Fruits. 



2. Fruits formed by the combination of several Flowers. 



1. Fruits formed by a Single Floaver. 



a. Simple Fruits. — By a simple fruit, we mean one which is 

 formed of a single carpel, and only one produced by a single 

 flower. By some botanists this term is used to signify all 

 fruits of whatever nature, which are the produce of a single 

 flower ; thus including the simple, apocarpous, and syncarpous 

 fruits of the classification here adopted. We shall describe four 

 kinds of these fruits: — namely, the Legume, the Lomentum, the 

 Drupe, and the Utricle. 



1. Legume or Pod. — This is a superior, one-celled, one or 

 many seeded fruit, dehiscing by both the A'cntral and dorsal 

 sutures, so as to form two valves, and bearing its seed or seeds 

 on the A'entral suture. Examples occur in the Pea {fig. 653), 

 Bean, Clover, and in most plants of the order Leguminosse, 

 Avhich has derived its name from this circumstance. The le- 

 gume assumes a variety of forms, but it is generally more or 

 less convex on its two surfaces, and nearly straight ; at other 

 times, however, it becomes twisted so as to resemble a screw 

 {fig. 675), or like a snail twisted, as in some species of Medi- 

 cago (fig 674), or coiled up like a caterpillar, as in Scorpi- 

 wus sulcata (fig. 673), or curved like a worm, as in CcesaU 

 pinia coriaria, or it assumes a number of other irregular 

 forms. Certain deviations from the ordinary structure of a 

 legume are met with in some plants; thus, in Astragalus (fig. 

 604), and Oxytropis, it is two-celled. i)i consequence of the 

 formation of a spurious dissepiment, which in the first plant 

 proceeds from the dorsal suture, in the latter from the ven- 

 tral. At other times, a numl)er of spurious horizontal (lisse]ii- 

 ments are formed, by which the legume becomes divided into 



