MIRBEL'S CLASSIFICATION OF FRUITS. 



91 



Fis. 96 



Fig. 96, o, represents a 

 silique, the fruit of the 

 siNAPis alba, (white mus- 

 tard -,) this is said to be 

 ii)sliate, terminating like 

 a bird's beak. 6, repre- 

 .>inits a globular seed ; c, 

 the same magnified ; rf, 

 shows the seed dividing, 

 and the embryo making 

 is a v>iri(^ty of the same genus. 



Pyxides, (from pnxis, a box ;) it 

 has two valves, an upper and lower, 

 the latter is attached to the recepta- 

 cle, while the former opens like the 

 hd of a box. This genus may be 

 illustrated by the fruit of the genus 

 Lecythis, (Fig. 97;) a, represents the 

 lower valve, b, the upper valve or 

 lid of the pericarp. To this genus 

 belong the fruit of the Auagalis, 

 Hyosciamus, and Gomphrena globosa, or bachelor's button. 



Order 3d. Dieresilla, (from dicBresis, division,) contains simple 

 fruits, which divide into many carpels ranged symmetrically round a 

 central axis. These carpels are formed by the adhering valves of 

 the pericarp, which in the maturity of the fruit separates, and the 

 carpels appear like so many little nuts ; as in the seed of the nastur- 

 tion, which easily falls into parts. 



Cremocarp, (from kremao, to suspend, and karpos, fruit;) this kind 

 of fruit derives its origin from an ovary surmounted with two styles, 

 and often crowned by the limb of the calyx. It has two cells, and 

 two seeds. It divides itself into two seeds, suspended by their sum- 

 mit to a slender central axis, usually two-forked. Each seed con- 

 tains a depending embryo, clothed with a membranous and adhe- 

 ring tegmen, and having a horny perisperm. The embryo is very 

 small, and has two cotyledons. The coriander is a spherical cremo- 

 carp ; the caraway is ellipsoid. The seeds of the carrot and parsley 

 and other umbelliferous plants belong to this genus. 



Regmate, (from regma, opening with noise,) containing many 

 seeds which are enclosed by two valves opening by an elastic move- 

 ment, as Euphorbia. 



The cut represents a 

 pericarp of the Euphoi'- 

 I iia ; it consists of four 

 .arpels;— in the lipe 

 timt, the panextern or 

 outei covering is thrown 

 off by an elastic move- 

 ment of the valves; a, 

 1 epi esents the entire 

 fruit, and 6, the same cut transversely, showing four seeds. 



JJieresil* a variable genus, containing such fruits in the order as 

 do not properly come under the two other divisions, as the nastur- 

 tion, geranium, hollyhock, &c. 



* The samara of Gaertner. 

 Pyxides— Order Dieresilla— Genus Cremocarp— Regmate—Dieresil. 



Fig. 98 



