CLASSIFICATION OF FRUIT. 
105 
ishment by the absorption of the mesocarp and thus contracted 
in its fibres and rendered dry and tough, is the endocarp. 
The pericarp consists of different parts, as, 
1st. Valves or external pieces which form the sides of the seed 
vessels. If a pericarp is formed of but one piece it is unival- 
ved ; the chesnut is of this kind. A pericarp with two 
valves is said to be bivalved, as a pea-pod. The pericarp 
of the violet is trivalved, that of the stramonium quadri- 
valved. Most valves separate easily, when the fruit is ripe ; 
this separation is known by the term dehiscence. 
2d. Sutures or seams are lines which show the union of valves ; 
at their seams the valves separate in the mature stage of 
the plant ; they are very distinct in the pod which has two. 
3d. Partitions , or dissepiments, are internal membranes which 
divide the pericarp into different cells ; these are longitu- 
dinal when they extend from the base to the summit of the 
pericarp ; they are transverse when they extend from one 
side to the other. 
4th. Column, or Columella, the axis of the fruit; this is the cen- 
tral point of union of the partitions of the seed vessels ; it 
may be seen distinctly in the core of an apple. 
5th. Cells, are divisions made by the dissepiments, which con- 
tain the seeds ; their number is seldom variable in the same 
genus of plants, and therefore serves as an important gene- 
ric distinction. 
6th. Receptacle, is that part of the pericarp to which the seed 
remains attached until its perfect maturity ; this organ by 
means of connecting fibres conveys to the seed for its nour- 
ishment, juices elaborated by the pericarp. 
Some plants are destitute of a pericarp, as in the labiate flow- 
ers, the compound flowers, and the grasses ; in these cases the 
seeds lie in the bottom of the calyx, which performs the office 
of a pericarp. 
Mirbel's classification of Fruits or Pericarps — Linnaeus's 
divisions of the same. 
Mirbel has divided the fruits of all phenogamous plants into 
two classes ; 1st, gymnocarps, which include all such as are 
not masked or covered by any strange organ, or form no union 
which conceals their true character. 2nd, angyocarps, which 
include all fruits covered by any strange organ, which disguis- 
es them from observation. 
Valves — Sutures — Partitions, or dissepiments — Column — Cells — Recep- 
tacle of the pericarp— Pericarp sometimes wanting — Mirbel’s two grand di- 
visions of fruit — 
