17 
SECT. III. 
THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SEED-VESSELS. 
Sylphs, as you hover on ethereal wing. 
Brood the green children of parturient Spring, 
Where in their bursting cells my embryos rest, 
I charge you, guard the vegetable nest; 
Count with nice eye the myriad seeds, that swell 
Each vaulted womb of husk, or pod, or shell; 
Feed with sweet juices, clothe with downy hair. 
Or hang inshrin’d, their little orbs in air. 
Darwin. 
As the chrysalis of the silkworm is enclosed in a golden tomb, so is the 
seed guarded in a similar manner. 
This part is by Botanists called the Pericarp * (Pericakpxum), or Seed- 
vessel. 
For the further purpose of the protection of the seed, Nature has some¬ 
times filled this vessel with air, as in the bladder-sena, or with down, as in 
the bean, and cotton plant. 
* The word Pericarp is derived from wept, around, and ncx.p7rog, the fruit, being that part which sur¬ 
rounds the seeds, whatever it may be; and from being more commonly a membranous body, hence 
the English appellation seed-vessel, which conveys a more confined notion than the word Pericarp, 
and hence the adoption of the word Pericarp in the language of Botany. 
Scientific terms are indispensably necessary in the Illustration of Nature, where the objects that pre¬ 
sent themselves to our consideration are so numerous. The question therefore is not, whether we shall 
have terms or no, but in what manner they should be constructed so as to answer the great purpose of 
receiving and communicating knowledge most effectually? Now we have been long in possession of a 
precise and significant language invented by Linnaeus, generally adopted by the learned of every coun¬ 
try in Europe, and received in great part into the vernacular tongues of several. Can we do better 
therefore than to keep as close as possible to this, and to adopt the Linnasan terms themselves, as far 
as the structure of our language will admit, by Anglicizing his expressions. But when any Latin 
terms have an appropriate sense in English, it may be better to translate them, than to use what may 
appear pedantic expressions; so likewise, when the Linncean terms do not well assimilate to our lan¬ 
guage, the same rule may be observed, rather than offend the ear. Martyn. 
It must be confessed that a knowledge of Botany has no necessary connexion with the nomen¬ 
clature; and it is easy to conceive how an intelligent man might be a good botanist, without the 
p 
