A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin

Vasculum,-i (s.n.II), abl.sg. vasculo: “a pitcher-shaped leaf. Also a case in which botanists place their freshly-gathered specimens, when on a journey” (Lindley); a small container or vessel; classically, the seed capsule of some plants; an implement, a piece of equipment; a botanist's case for carrying specimens as they are collected; (in mycology) the ascidium (Jackson) [> L. vasculum,-i (s.n.II), ‘a small vessel;’ “applied to a capsule or seed-vessel, also to the fleshy persistent calyx in the pomegranate and similar fruits” (Glare); dim. vas, gen.sg. vasis, s.n.III)];

1.

- vascula (pl.n.II) dulciaria (adj.A), a container for holding sweets, such as a cookie-jar.

- Deinde mittuntur in vasculo, cui fontana aut pluvialis aqua miscetur, et opertum vas per triginta dies relinquitur ac subinde, quantum sublatum fuerit aceti ad usum, tantum redditur aquae ad reparationem;” finally it is sent into a vessel, with which spring water and rain-water is mixed, and the covered vessel is left for 30 days, and from then on, as much of the vinegar was drawn off for use, as waters are put back [i.e. replenished] for restoration [i.e. of the volume].

2. - [term] Loculamentum est camera quaedam seclusa & distincta in seminum vasculis, uti videre est in capitulis Papaverum. Jun. [in English]] ‘a Cell’ (Ray), the loculamentum [= locule] is a kind of cell separate and distinct in the vascula [i.e. seed vessels or capsules] of the seeds, as can be seen in the capitula of Papaver.

3. - [fungi] haec potius ad id firmitatis roborisve elastici, quod vasculo Thelebol[i] stercorei tribuit inventor, neutiquam pertingere videtur (S&A), rather this, on the basis of of that firmness or elastic capacity, which the discoverer attributed to the [vasculum = ascidium] of Thelebolus stercoreus, by no means seems to pertain.

- [fungus] nos saltem hujusmodi cirrhulos, resumto post nocturnam quietem examine, juxta ora semipatula, per effluxum procul dubio, recubantes conspeximus eorumdem speciminum, quae vespera praecedente vasculo suo semi-emerso coronata animadverteramus (S&A), we ourselves, at least, had noticed cirrhuli of this kind, by an examination taken up again after the nightly stillness, beside the half-spread openings, [due to an efflux [i.e. an outflowing], beyond doubt, we had observed them lying on the back of the same specimens, which we had observed on the preceding evening, crowned with their own semi-emersed vasculum [i.e. seed-capsule or ascidium].

NOTE: cf. Proc. Bot. Soc. Brit. Isles, 3: 135-150 (1959); Stearn 1983).

NOTE: the collecting box or collecting receptacle may have been made of tin: capsula,-ae (s.f.I) stannea:

- [fungi] in capsulis stanneis nostris ad fungos putridos abunde pronatum vidimus medio Septembri (S&A), we have seen it inclined to grow abundantly in our tin boxes [perhaps the vasculum, or collecting tin] on decayed fungi in the middle of September.