394 Farmer . — On the Morphology and 
cannot be questioned. Still there does exist a number of 
fruits which do not correspond in all points to the definitions 
of any single group, but appear rather to share the pecu- 
liarities which characterise more than one class ; and others, 
whilst they conform generally to certain types, are irregular 
in minor respects. Thus the fruit of Daphne Mezereon is 
commonly described as a berry — a term applied to that class 
of fruits whose succulent tissue is derived from the pericarp ; 
but in the berry of Daphne not only is the pericarp fleshy, 
but also the outer integument of the seed, whilst the hard 
seed-coat is formed from the outer layer of cells of the inner 
integument. Instances of this kind might be multiplied, and 
in the course of a series of papers which I hope to publish 
on this subject, I shall have opportunities of describing 
some of the principal modifications which the various kinds 
of fruits may present. 
It is a fact worthy of notice, that, whilst pulpy fruits are 
very common in certain natural orders, so much so as to 
constitute one of the ordinal characters, the morphological 
nature of the pulp itself may vary considerably within a 
very narrow circle of affinity. Amongst the British plants, 
the Caprifoliaceae afford perhaps the best examples of this 
fact ; thus in Lonicera Periclymenum not only the pericarp 
and placenta become fleshy, but also the bracts and axis 
of the inflorescence ; in the nearly allied L. caprifolium , 
however, the succulent tissue is derived from the placenta 
and pericarp alone. A further modification of the type 
as represented by Lonicera occurs in Sambucus nigra , in that 
here the pulp is reduced to the mesocarp, the internal layers 
of the pericarp being devoted to the formation of the stony 
endocarp, and the reduction is carried out with still greater 
completeness in Cornns sanguinea . Similar instances are also 
furnished by the orders Rosaceae and Urticaceae; but the 
above is sufficient to indicate the difficulty of arriving at a 
satisfactory classification of fruits whose chief distinctive 
feature is subject to so many variations which pass quite 
gradually one into the other. Of course the significance of 
