SECT. V. *HE FRUIT. 



middle, and in Chenopodium it is so tender as to 

 be easily rubbed off with the finger. 



The samara is a compressed and leathery cap-Thesam^ 

 sule, of one or two cells, but without valves, ter- 

 minating in a membranaceous wing or border, and 

 falling off entire with the contained seed, by which 

 it is irregularly burst open in the process of ger- 

 mination, as exemplified in the Ash, Elm, and 

 Maple. Dr. Smith, however, suggests an objection 

 to the use of this term as denoting a variety of 

 the capsule, on the ground of its having been pre- 

 occupied by Linnaeus, and appropriated to the de- 

 signation of a genus. 



The bag is an elongated and leathery capsule The bag. 

 consisting of one valve and one cell, and opening 

 longitudinally on the one side. It is sometimes 

 single but more frequently duplicate, with the 

 seeds loose, or attached to a proper receptacle 

 which is generally the edge of the seam by which 

 it opens. It may be exemplified in the genus 

 Vinca or Pceonia. 



The coccus is a dry and elastic capsule of two The co- 

 or more lobes joined together, each forming a cell, 

 and containing a seed ; but separating when ripe 

 from the axis, and bursting longitudinally into two 

 valves united at the base. It is two-celled, as in 

 Mercurialis ; three-celled, as in Euphorbia ; or 

 many-celled, as in Hum crepitans ; the valves of 

 which, as we are told, when fully ripe and dry, fre- 

 quently burst open with a sudden and violent jerk 



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