NOMEXCLATUKE. 



\1II. The Fruit and Seed. 



108. 



The fruit {frnctus)^ in a general sense, is every thing tliat 

 contains seed. 



Fruits are hence usually divided into simple {slmflices), 

 compound {composit'i, or carpella), that is, when a single 

 flower-stem, having several pistills, produces several fruits, 

 as the Ranunculus, Clematidae, and Thalictra ; and aggre- 

 gate {aggregati)., when the fruits of several flowers are aggre- 

 gated into one common fruit, as is the case with some of the 

 Urticeae, Anoneie, and with the Mulberry. The term carpU 

 dium has been proposed for this kind of growth. 



In the fruit, it has been usual to distinguish more particu- 

 larly the pcr'icarplum from the proper seed. The former is 

 the cover by which the latter is surrounded. 



109. 



Actording as the pericarps are too thin, simple, and small, 

 to be distinguished from the seeds, or separate themselves 

 more obviously from them, we apply the phrases of nalced 

 needs (semina nuda)^ or seeds surrounded by a cover {peri- 

 carpus tectai). But more correct observation teaches us, that 

 no seed is wholly naked, or destitute of a covering ; en which 

 account those called angiospermla must embrace but a very 

 small proportion. 



What have been called pcrf'ccthj naled seeds, are only 

 such as are surrounded witli a simple covering of a peculiar 

 kind. These are now called carijopses {caryopsis), as in the 

 Grasses. 



Achenium, again, is an apparently naked seed, which yet, 

 beside its proper cover, has a calyx overspreading it, as is the 

 case widi the Composita^ and partly with the Umbellata' ; 

 (Tab. I. Fig. 14. 15. ; Tab. VHI. Fig. 8.) Both these ap- 

 parently naked seeds are called, by De Candolle, carpella. 



When the seed is loosely siuTounded by its cover, a blad- 

 der {ulriculus) is formed, as in the Amaranths, and the 



