The remarkable ovoid involucre of Coix, which becomes of stony hardness, white and polished (then known as " Job's tears," q.v.), is also a modified bract or leaf-sheath.
To this peculiar fruit the term caryopsis has been applied (more familiarly " grain "); it is commonly furrowed longitudinally down one side (usually the inner, but in Coix and its allies, the outer), and an additional covering is not unfrequently provided by the adherence of the persistent palea, or even also of the flowering FIG.
In other plants, but more rarely, the pistil is perfected before the stamens, as in Potentilla argentea, Plantago major, Coix Lachryma, and they are termed proterogynous.
