XIV. THE FRUIT GIFT. 233 



grass, being precisely the vegetable structure to which 

 frutescent change is forever forbidden ! and to which the 

 word seed is primarily and perfectly applicable ! the 

 thing to be sown, not grafted. 



9. But to mark this total incapability of frutescent 

 change, and connect the form of the seed more definitely 

 with its dusty treasure, it is better to reserve, when we 

 are speaking with precision, the term ' grain ' for the 

 seeds of the grasses : the difficulty is greater in French 

 than in English : because they have no monosyllabic word 

 for the constantly granular ' seed ' ; but for us the terms 

 are all simple, and already in right use, only not quite 

 clearly enough understood ; and there remains only one 

 real difficulty now in our system of nomenclature, that 

 having taken the word ' husk ' for the seed-vessel, we 

 are left without a general word for the true fringe of a 

 filbert, or the chaff of a grass. I don't know whether 

 the French ' frange ' could be used by them in this 

 sense, if we took it in English botany. But for the 

 present, we can manage weU enough without it, one 

 general term, ' chaff,' serving for all the grasses, ' cup ' 

 for acorns, and 6 fringe ' for nuts. 



10. But I call this a real difficulty, because I suppose, 

 among the myriads of plants of which I know nothing, 

 there may be forms of the envelope of fruits or seeds 

 which may, for comfort of speech, require some common 

 generic name. One imreal difficulty, or shadow of diffi- 

 culty, remains in our having no entirely comprehensive 



