134 VEGETABLE ORGANOGRAPHY. 



carpels which surround, contain, and nourish them, and 

 from all the parts of the flower which, adhering to the 

 carpels, seem more or less to form an integrant part of 

 all this apparatus. The fecundated ovules bear the name 

 of Seeds (seminaj, and their envelopes have collectively 

 received that of Pericarp (pericarpium), a term which 

 is not exactly applicable to an organ which is not around 

 the fruit, but forms an integrant part of it. 



The study of the fruit, considered collectively, bears 

 the name of Carpology. 



It is to Gcertner that we owe the first exact descrip- 

 tions of the fruits and seeds of plants, and Bernard and 

 A. L. de Jussieu were the first to make us understand 

 the importance of the carpological characters in the clas- 

 sification of plants; since then several distinguished 

 botanists have directed their attention to Carpology. 



Two causes, however, have principally contributed to 

 render the study of the pericarp more difficult and con- 

 fused than it ought to be, viz. — 1st, that for a long time 

 it was only studied when it had attained maturity, and, 

 consequently, the true character of the parts of which it 

 was composed could not be judged of, seeing that several 

 of them are obliterated or developed, or united together 

 during maturation ; 2d, that it, as well as most of the 

 floral organs, has been considered as a single organ 

 divisible into distinct parts, whilst it is always more true 

 and advantageous to consider first the elementary organs 

 themselves, and afterwards the results of their different 

 aggregations. We do not say then, with a modern 

 botanist (Mirbel), " that the flower never has more than 

 one ovary, and that the little distinct bodies, fixed upon 

 the same receptacle, are only portions of a single peri- 

 carp ;" but we affirm, on the contrary, that the flower 

 usually has several carpels, which are sometimes sepa- 

 rate, sometimes united into a single body. In order to 



