Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/309

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THE CAPSULE AND ITS KINDS.
279

rather than a Capsule. Gærtner applies it to Chenopodium, as well as to Clematis, &c. In the former it seems a Pellicula, in the latter a Testa, as we shall hereafter explain.

Samara is indeed a species of Capsule, of a compressed form and dry coriaceous texture, with one or two cells, never bursting, but falling off entire, and dilated into a kind of wing at the summit or sides. It is seen in the Elm, the Maple, the Ash, Engl. Bot. t. 1692, and some other plants. This term however may well be dispensed with, especially as it is the name of a genus in Linnæus; an objection to which Cotyledon too is liable.

Folliculus, a Follicle or Bag, reckoned by Linnæus a separate kind of seed-vessel from the Capsule, ought perhaps rather to be esteemed a form of the latter, as Gærtner reckons it. This is of one valve and one cell, bursting lengthwise, and bearing the seeds on or near its edges, or on a receptacle parallel therewith. Instances are found in Vinca, t. 514, Pæonia, t. 1513, and Embothrium, Bot. of New Holland, t. 710.