72 



NOMEXCLATUIIE. 



VIII. The Fruit and Seed 

 108. 



The fruit {fructus)^ in a general sense, is every thing that 

 contains seed. 



Fruits are hence usually divided into simple (si7nplices), 

 compound (compositi, or carpella), that is, when a single 

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

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

 gate (flggregati):, when the fruits of several flowers are aggre- 

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

 Urticeas, Anonese, and with the Mulberry, The term carpi- 

 d'lum has been proposed for this kind of growth. 



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

 larly the pericarpium from the proper seed, The former is 

 the cover by which the latter is surrounded, 



109. 



According 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 na'ked 

 seeds (semina 7iuda\ or seeds surrounded by a cover (peri- 

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

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

 account those called angiospermia must embrace but a very 

 small proportion. 



What have been called perfectly nahed seeds, are only 

 such as are surrounded with a simple covering of a peculiar 

 kind. These are now called caryopses (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 with the Composite, and partly with the Umbellatae ; 

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

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



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

 der (utricidus) is formed, as in the Amaranths, and the 



