CHAP. II. 
FRUIT. 
227 
the language of carpology is a mere chaos. In practice but 
a small number of terms is actually employed ; but it cannot 
be doubted that, if it were not for the inconvenience of over- 
burdening 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 Corylus, and the achenia of Rosa and 
Borago ; and that of herry 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 
eminent writers upon the subject in their own words, in 
order that the meaning attached by those authors to carpo- 
logical terms, when employed by themselves, may be clearly 
understood. 
In the phraseology of writers antecedent to Linnceus^ the fol- 
lowing are the only terms of this description employed ; viz. — 
1. Bacca^ a berry: any fleshy fruit. 
2. Acinus, a bunch 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. Follicidus (Fuchs), any kind of capsule. 
6. Grossus, the fruit of the fig unripe. 
7. Siliqua, the coating of any fruit. 
In his Philosophia Botanica, Linn^us gives the following 
definitions of the terms he employs : — 
1 . Capsula, hollow, and dehiscing in a determinate manner. 
2. Siliqua, two-valved, with the seeds attached to both 
sutures. 
3. Legumen, two-valved, with the seeds attached to one 
suture only. 
4. Conceptaculum, one-valved, opening longitudinally on 
one side, and distinct from the seeds. 
Q 2 
