Abstract
DR.DICKSON referred to the confessedly unsatisfactory state of fruit-classification, and to the very unnecessary extent of the existing terminology, which is further complicated by a considerable amount of variance among botanists as to the precise application of several of the terms employed. He was of the opinion, which he believed to be a growing one among botanists, that the most convenient method of classification was, in the first place, rigorously to restrict the definition of a “fruit” to the mature or ripe pistil, excluding from that definition the modifications of accessory parts or organs, which, in many cases, are correlative therewith; and, secondly, to base the primary classification upon the general character of the modification undergone by the parts of the pistil in ripening, treating as of minor importance the characters involved in the description of the flower, such as the superior or inferior position of the ovary, &c.
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Fruit Classification * . Nature 4, 347–348 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/004347b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/004347b0