im JGUliNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. X 



Schrader. Whether we know the plant as belonging to the getlusj 

 ^■Eehmandra or to the genus Bryonia^ one thing is certain, that Corah 

 locarpus epigcea is of the same genus as the Epglish Bryonia dioica, 

 C. B. Clarke completely drops the genus JEchmandra from his 

 classification of the Cucurbitacece in Hooker's Flora of British India. 



The fruit of the plant I am describing is ordinarily termed a 

 *' Berry," but this term I have not adopted above in my deS" 

 cription without modification. The term berry is a puzzling term 

 in botany. It is easy enough to understand what a " berrv " is 

 in popular parlance ; but in botany the term berry is used by 

 several eminent Botanists with such varied significations that it 

 ■would be better if the term were entirely obliterated from the 

 Scientific Botanical Yocabulary, for moTe than one reason. It conveys 

 no accurate idea as to whether the. fruit is superior or inferior. It 

 gives no idea whether the fruit is pulpy inside or has a hard stony seed. 

 It gives no idea as to whether the fruit contains one seed or more than 

 one. To show to the general reader of botany how many descriptions 

 can be given from various authoritative writers, of- one single term, 

 having a sort of mixed position in popular parlance and in botanic 

 nomenclature} I crave the indulgence of the editor of this journal to 

 embody in the following few pages, quotations from various Botanists 

 of eminence. I crave the same indulgence of the reader of this journal, 

 and trust that I may not be charged with a vain^glorious desire to parade 

 my reading in botany, but that I may be credited with a sincere desire 

 to espose the grievance of the systematic student of scientific botany 

 that our botxmical technical terms are sometimes extremely puzzling. 



Sir Joseph Hooker's definition (p. a;x. *' Outlines of Botany," 

 VoL 1, 175; "Flor. Br. Ind.") of the term "Berry," is as follows : ^' It 

 is a succulent (indehiscent) fruit," in which the whole substance of the 

 pericarp is fleshy or pulpy, with the exception of the outer skin or rind, 

 called the epicarp. The seeds themselves -are usually immersed in the 

 pulp ; but in some berries the seeds are separated from the pulp by the 

 walls of the cavity or cells of the ovary, which form, as it were, a thin 

 inner skin or rind called Endocarp, It is not mentioned here whether 

 the fruit is superior or inferior, 



IfA Lindley's " Glossary of Technical Terms" (see page xii), the 

 following is the description of a Berry : — Berry or Bacca^ " that is f o 



