BOTANIC A. 
13 
containing the seeds; and at the end opposite the footstalk, 
is generally a small cavity, called umbilicus, (the navel) from 
its resemblance to that part in animals, and which was for¬ 
merly the calyx, seated above the fruit, and permanent, as in, 
pi/rus , cucumis, cucurbit a, &c. 
7th. Bacc A (a berry) is also generally a pulpy pericarpium 
without valve; enclosing one or more seeds, which have no 
membranous capsule, but are disposed promiscuously through 
the pulp without other covering,* as in solarium, &c. and me 
generally placed on footstalks, attached to receptacles within 
the pulp, as in ribes, &c. 'i’he berry also admits of the follow¬ 
ing distinction ; it is said to be proper, when it is a true 
pericarpium formed of a germen; and improper, when it is 
formed from other parts of the fructification ; as in morus, 
rosa, juniper, taxus, &c. a large succulent calyx becomes a 
berry ; and \n juniper the three petals become the umbilicus; 
in poterium the berry is formed of the tube of the corolla ; in 
fragaria, &c. it is formed of the top of the receptacle ; in 
rubus, &c. it is formed from a seed, whidh is the receptacle of 
the berry ; in ruscus,&Lc. it is enclosed within, and is a part of 
the nectary. The berry is commonly either round or oval, and 
is frequently furnished with an umbilicus, as in ribes, &c ; It 
doth not naturally open to disperse the seeds like the capsule, 
that office being performed by birds and other animals. 
* Dr. Milne, in his Botanical Dictionary, thinks Linnaeus’s definitions of the 
drupe and berry very imperfect; for the pericarpium in capsicum is called a berry* 
yet hath no pulp, and is hollow within ; also in xanthium it is called a berry* 
though it contains a nut in a dry pericarpium : neither is drupa always succulent 
or pulpy* though so defined, as in ulmus y pistacia , sparganium , &c.; neither is 
the seed always a stone or nut, as in ulmus , 5 ch^ebera , Jtagel lana, and mangifcra 
But in the later editions the pericarpium of ulmus is now altered to a berry, and 
that of xanthmm to a drupe : and though the seeds i n ftagellaria, <kc« are not pro¬ 
perly nuts, yet they are large and single, and are generally called 
is very nice and accurate in those plants which he hath seen himself, but where he 
hath taken the description from others, or from dryed Specimens, it is sometimes 
imperfect*—Though the drupe and berry are generally succulent, yet in some plants 
he describes them as dry ; as in pistacia , &c. the drupe is called dry ; and In 
trientalis , &c. the berry is called dry ; for the chief ruling distinction is, that the 
capsule is divided into parts called valves , and the drupe and berry are entire, hav¬ 
ing no valve ; and in favour of this distinction, he sometimes calls the dry drupe 
pr berry, a -capsular drupe or berry, from its resembling the capsule as to its dry* 
»ess, but without valves. 
