20 DR. ERIC DRABBLE ON 
resemble fig. 6. He says: “Enfin il arrive frequemment que 
les 2 cótés d'un carpelle (celui qui eroit proportionnellement 
moins que l'autre) sont considérablement écartés à ce point que 
bientót ils se trouvent sur un méme plan forment avec les 
2 cótés de l'autre carpelle un fruit à 3 angles, et à une seule 
loge." .... “ Dans ce cas, les trophospermes sont placés aux 
2 angles contigue aux 2 faces du carpelle qui se sont placés dans 
un méme plan; le 3* angle ne porte point de placenta.” He 
also mentions a triearpellary condition with a triloeular ovary 
and axile placentation. 
Penzig (11), 1890, and Taubert (12), 1892, refer to bicarpel- 
lary fruits of Phaseolus. 
An important point was raised by Moquin-Tandon. He says: 
“Quand ces fruits ont acquis une certaine grosseur, et qu’ 
autour d’eux il ne reste plus de traces des parties florales il 
devient alors presque impossible de reconnaitre s'ils ont été 
produits par deux ou plusieurs fleurs et par symétrisation.” 
In the beans figured and described above, there can be no 
doubt that they arose from a single flower, as the calyx was, in 
most cases, still present and comprised the usual 5 sepals. 
In the same way, so far as the calyx is concerned, no indication 
of any doubling of the flower was apparent. 
With reference to the possible meaning of the facts recorded 
above, but little ean be said. "There is not much doubt that the 
Leguminose are derived from a polycarpellary stock, and in 
some degree at least the bicarpellary nature may be regarded as 
a reversion to an ancestral state. This, however, cannot be said 
for the synearpous nature of the ovary. In view of the fact 
that all the normally polycarpellary members of the order 
(Prosopis sp., Hausemannia sp., and others) and most recorded 
cases of anomalously polycarpellary forms, exclusive of Phaseolus, 
are apocarpous, it is at least open to question whether we have in 
the forms above described a truly primitive condition. If so, 
then the series read from 4, through 3, 2, 1, and culminating 
in the ordinary bean-fruit, may possibly represent the manner 
of reduetion to the present monocarpellary condition. The form 
shown in fig. 5 would in this ease be quite anomalous, as indeed it 
. would appear to be under any conditions. 
Although in our present state of knowledge no special 
importance ean be attached to the soil upon which the plants 
were cultivated, it seemed advisable to place it upon record in 
