74 



NOMENCLATURE. 



cular (bilocularis, trilocularis). A kind of compartment, which 

 opens with a certain elasticity, is called cocmrriy whence the 

 Euphorbiae, and similar plants, are called tricocca, because 

 their fruits have three such compartments. 



Valves (valva:), are the side-pieces, or exterior walls of the 

 compartments, into which the pericarp is divided. Hence a 

 fruit is called bivalve, trivalve (bivalvis, trivalvis). 



Partitions {dissepimentuin), are the interior walls of the 

 compartments* They are often formed, as in the Andro- 

 medse, by the valves turned inwards. They are then called 

 dissepimenta valvaf'ia, and valvas septiferas. 



We must also notice the suture {suturd). This is the place 

 in which two valves are united. The suture properly, there- 

 fore, points out the springing of the fruit from valves ; but 

 the genus Eucledium Br. has distinct sutures, and yet the 

 fruit does not spring ; and Bunias, in the unripe fruit, shews 

 sutures which disappear during the ripening. The opening 

 of the valves often takes place from above to the middle 

 of the fruit {semivalves fructus) ; they often also open from 

 below, as in the Orchideae and Triglochin. 



111. 



An uncommonly important part is that which has been 

 called the placenta {placenta, or reeeptaculum), which either 

 stands like a free column in the middle, or is formed by the 

 thickening of the partitions, or even by the bending in of the 

 valves ; (Tab. I. Fig. 21). At the same time, every column 

 that is observable in the fruit is not the placenta. In the 

 capsules of the Mosses, for instance, we observe an entirely 

 free central column ; but the seeds are fastened to the walls 

 of the capsule. The way and manner in which the placenta, 

 is formed is called placentation. 



In the Umbellatae, Hoffman has called the column spermor- 

 ptodium. 



u% 



A nut (nux)y is a fruit with a shell, which docs not burst 



of itself. This tshell is often surrounded by an external tough 



2 



