epicarp

Fruit a little seed-like nutlet, enclosed in a loose and separable membranous epicarp.

The drupe is a succulent usually one-seeded indehiscent fruit, with a pericarp easily distinguishable into epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp.

Botanists distinguish five skins on the berry—epidermis, epicarp, endicarp, episperm and embryous membrane—but for practical purposes the number of integuments may be taken as three.

The cells of the epicarp are broad and polygonal, sometimes regularly four-sided, about 15–35 µ broad.

Mooden Sheriff ascribes its emetic properties to the pulp alone, the epicarp and seeds being inactive according to his authority.