MIRBEL'S CLASSIFICATION OF FRUITS. 
91 
Fig. 96. 
Fior. 97. 
Fig. 96, a, represents a 
silique, the fruit of the 
siNAPis alba, (white mus- 
tard ;) this is said to be 
rostrate, terminating like 
a bird's beak, b, repre- 
sents a globular seed ; c, 
the same magnified ; d, 
shows the seed dividing, 
and the embryo making 
Its appearance. The silicula is a variety of the same genus. 
Pyxides, (from puxis, a box ;) it 
has two valves, an upper and lower, 
the latter is attached to the recepta- 
cle, while the former opens hke the 
lid of a box. This genus may be 
illustrated by the fruit of the genus 
Lecythis, (Fig. 97;) a, represents the 
lower valve, 6, the upper valve or 
Ud of the pericarp. To this genus 
belong the fruit of the Anagalis, 
Hyosciamus, and Gomphrena globosa, or bachelor's button. 
Order 3d. Dieresilla, (from dicrresis, 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 parslr^ 
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 Euphor- 
bia ; it consists of four 
carpels ;— in the ripe 
fruit, the panextern or 
outer covering is thrown 
off by an elastic move- 
ment of the valves; a, 
represents the entire 
fruit, and b, the same cut transversely, showing four seeds. 
Dieresil,^ 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 Dieresilia— Genus Cremocarp— Regmate— Dieresil, 
Fig. 98. 
