OUTLINES OF BOTANY. 
XXI 
the exception of the outer skin or rind, called the Epicarp. The seeds themselves are 
usually immersed in the pulp ; but in some berries, the seeds are separated from the 
pulp by the walls of the cavity or cells of the ovary, which forms as it were a thin inner 
skin or rind, called the Endocarp. 
tli e Drupe, in which the pericarp, when ripe, consists of two distinct portions, an 
outer succulent one called the Sarcocarp (covered like the berry by a skin or epicarp), 
and an inner dry endocarp called the Putamen, which is either cartilaginous (of the 
consistence of parchment) or hard and woody. In the latter case it is commonly 
called a stone, and the drupe a stone-fruit. When the putamen consists of several 
distinct stones or nuts, each enclosing a seed, they are called pyrenes, or sometimes 
kernels. 
158. The principal kinds of dry fruits are 
the Capsule or Pod,* which is dehiscent. When ripe the pericarp usually splits 
longitudinally into as many or twice as many pieces, called valves, as it contains cells 
or placentas. If these valves separate at the line of junction of the carpels, that is, along 
the line of the placentas or dissepiments, either splitting them or leaving them attached 
to the axis, the dehiscence is termed septicidal ; if the valves separate between the 
placentas or dissepiment, the dehiscence is loculicidal, and the valves either bear the 
placentas or dissepiments along their middle line, or leave them attached to the axis. 
Sometimes also the capsule discharges its seeds by slits, chinks, or pores, more or less 
regularly arranged, or bursts irregularly, or separates into two parts by a horizontal 
line ; in the latter case it is said to be circumsciss. 
the Nut or Achene, which is indehiscent and contains but a single seed. When the 
pericarp is thin in proportion • to the seed it encloses, the whole fruit (or each of its 
lobes) has the appearance of a single seed, and is so called in popular language. If the 
pericarp is thin and rather loose, it is often called an Utricle. A Samara is a nut with 
a wing at its upper end. 
159. Where the carpels of the pistil are distinct (125) they may severally become 
as many distinct berries, drupes, capsules, or achenes. Separate carpels are usually 
more or less compressed laterally, with more or less prominent inner and outer 
edges, called sutures, and, if dehiscent, the carpel usually opens at these sutures. A 
Follicle is a carpel opening at the inner suture only. In some cases where the carpels 
are united in the pistil they will separate when ripe ; they are then called Cocci if one- 
seeded. 
160. The peculiar fruits of some of the large Orders have received special names, 
which will be explained under each Order. Such are the siliqua and silicule of Cruci- 
ferse, the legume of Leguminosoe, the pome of Pyrus and its allies, the pepo of Cucur- 
bitaceas, the cone of Conifer*, th e grain or caryopsis of Gramme®, etc. 
§ 14. The Seed. 
161. The Seed is enclosed in the pericarp in the great majority of flowering plants, 
called therefore Angiosperms, or angiospermous plants. In Conferee and a very few 
allied genera, called Gymnosperms, or gymnospermous plants, the seed is naked, without 
any real pericarp. These truly gymnospermous plants must not be confounded with 
Labiatce, Boragineae, etc., which have also been falsely called gymnospermous, their 
small nuts having the appearance of seeds (158). 
162. The seed when ripe contains an embryo or young plant, either filling or nearly 
filling the cavity, but not attached to the outer skin or the seed, or more or less im- 
mersed in a mealy, oily, fleshy, or horn-like substance, called the albumen, or peri- 
sperm. The presence or absence of this albumen, that is, the distinction between albu- 
minous and exalbuminous seeds, is one of great importance. The embryo or albumen 
can often only be found or distinguished when the seed is quite ripe, or sometimes only 
when it begins to germinate. 
163. The shell of the seed consists usually of two separable coats. The outer coat, 
called the testa , is usually the principal one, and in most cases the only one attended 
to in descriptions. It may be hard and crustaceous, woody or bony, or thin and mem- 
* In English descriptions, pod is more frequently used when it is long and narrow ; capsule, or 
sometimes pouch, when it is short and thick or broad. 
