pericarp Bot.
(ˈpɛrɪkɑːp)
[= F. péricarpe (1556 in Hatz.-Darm.), It. pericarpio (Florio), ad. 16th c. L. pericarpium, a. Gr. περικάρπιον pod, husk, shell, f. περί around + καρπός fruit. In earlier use in the L. form: see pericarpium1.]
A seed-vessel; the case containing the seed or seeds, comprising the outer shell, rind, or skin, and the enclosed pulp, etc. if any; the wall of the ripened ovary or fruit of a flowering plant. (See endocarp, epicarp, mesocarp.) Also applied to a special structure containing the spores in certain cryptogamous plants, as the cystocarp of florideous algæ.
| 1759 B. Stillingfleet Misc. Tracts, Biberg's Œcon. Nat. (1762) 63 Most of the pericarps are shut at top, that the seeds may not fall. [Note] Whatever surrounds the seeds is called by botanical writers a pericarpium, and as we want an English word to express this, I have taken the liberty to call it a pericarp. 1785 Martyn Rousseau's Bot. x. (1794) 99 A bilocular pericarp, or seed-vessel of two cells. 1835 Lindley Introd. Bot. (1848) II. 3 Every fruit consists of two principal parts, the pericarp and the seed. 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 236 Articulated branches, which..form the peculiar ‘Pericarp’ of Lejolisia [a florideous alga]. |
Hence † periˈcarpic a. = pericarpial; pericarˈpoidal a., resembling a pericarp.
| 1819 Lindley tr. Richard's Observ. 37 The pericarpic direction of the embryo. 1890 Cent. Dict., Pericarpoidal. |