190 ORGANOGRAPHY. BOOK 1. 



in wliicli it forms the part called the mace surrounding the seed. 

 It is never developed until after the fertilisation of the ovule. 



Having thus explained the structure of the pericarp, it is in 

 the next place necessary to enquire into the nature of its 

 modifications, which in systematic botany are of considerable 

 importance. It is, on the one hand, very much to be regretted 

 that the terms employed in this department of the science, 

 which is that of Carpology, have been often used so vaguely 

 as to have no exact meaning ; while, on the other hand, they 

 have been so exceedingly multiplied by various writers, that 

 the language of carpology is a mere chaos. In practice 

 but a small number of terms is actually employed ; but it can- 

 not be doubted that, if it were not for the inconvenience of 

 overburdening the science with words, it would conduce very 

 much to clearness of description if botanists would agree to 

 make use of some very precise and uniform nomenclature. 



What, for instance, can be more embarrassing than to find 

 the term nut applied to the superior plurilocular pericarp of 

 Verbena, the gland of Cory 1 us, and the achenia of Rosa and 

 Borago; and that of ierry to the fleshy envelope of Taxus, the 

 polyspermous inferior fruit of Ribes, the succulent calyx of 

 Blitum, and several other things ? 



So much discordance, indeed, exists in the application of 

 terms expressive of the modifications of fruit, that it is quite 

 indispensable to give the definitions of some of the most emi- 

 nent writers upon the subject in their own words, in order 

 that the meaning attached by those authors to carpological 

 terms, when employed by themselves, may be clearly undertood. 



In the phraseology of writers antecedent to Linnceus^ the fol- 

 lowing are the only terms of this description employed ; viz. — 



1. Bacca, a berry: any fleshy fruit. 



2. Aci7ius,SLhunch of fleshy fruit: especially a bunch of grapes. 



3. Cachri/s, a cone : as of the pine tree. 



4. Pilula, a cone like the Galbulus of modern botanists. 



5. Folliculus (Fuchs), any kind of capsule. 



6. Grossiis, the fruit of the fig unripe. 



7. Siliqua, the coating of any fruit. 



In his " Philosophia Botanica" Linn^us gives the follow 

 ing definitions of the terms he employs : — 



