190 
ORGANOGRAPHY. 
BOOK I. 
in which it forms the part called the mace surrounding the seed. 
It is never developed until after the fertilisation of the ovule. 
Having thus explained the structure of the pericarp, it is in 
the next place necessary to enquire into the nature of its 
modifications, which in systematic botany are of considerable 
importance. It is, on the one hand, very much to be regretted 
that the terms employed in this department of the science, 
which is that of Carpology, have been often used so vaguely 
as to have no exact meaning ; while, on the other hand, they 
have been so exceedingly multiplied by various writers, that 
the language of carpology is a mere chaos. In practice 
but a small number of terms is actually employed ; but it can- 
not be doubted that, if it were not for the inconvenience of 
overburdening the science with words, it would conduce very 
much to clearness of description if botanists would agree to 
make use of some very precise and uniform nomenclature. 
What, for instance, can be more embarrassing than to find 
the term nut applied to the superior plurilocular pericarp of 
Verbena, the gland of Cory] us, and the achenia of Rosa and 
Borago; and that of berry to the fleshy envelope of Taxus, the 
polyspermous inferior fruit of Ribes, the succulent calyx of 
Blitum, and several other things ? 
So much discordance, indeed, exists in the application of 
terms expressive of the modifications of fruit, that it is quite 
indispensable to give the definitions of some of the most emi- 
nent writers upon the subject in their own words, in order 
that the meaning attached by those authors to carpological 
terms, when employed by themselves, may be clearly undertood. 
In the phraseology of writers antecedent to LinncBus, the fol- 
lowing are the only terms of this description employed ; viz. — 
1. Bacca, a berry: any fleshy fruit. 
2. Aci7ius,Sih\inch of fleshy fruit: especially a bunch of grapes. 
3. Cachrys, a cone : as of the pine tree. 
4. Pilula, a cone like the Galbulus of modern botanists. 
5. Folliculus (Fuchs), any kind of capsule. 
6. Grossits, the fruit of the fig unripe. 
7. Siliqua, the coating of any fruit. 
In his " Philosophia Botanica" Linn^us gives the follow 
i ng definitions of the terms he employs :— 
