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104 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
silk which is covered on the outside with castings and 
which remains protected within the stem. Before making 
the cocoon, however, it generally eats a passage way to 
the outer covering of the stem and lines this with silk 
leaving but a thin cap.’’ During the time that the fruits 
are drying up, as described above, the larve of Prodoxus 
are particularly active and in many cases their burrowing 
succeeds in cutting the peduncle entirely off so that the 
fruit cluster falls to the ground. I haveseen many clusters 
cut off in more than one place so that they are separated 
into several fragments. These portions of the fruit cluster 
may each retain attached a number of the old more or less 
dried up fruits containing many good seeds. As the frag- 
ments of the fruit cluster fall they are not lodged in the 
leaves as they undoubtedly would be if these remained 
erect; but are directed outward so that they fall, as we 
have seen that the seeds and single fruits do, on the ground 
a short distance away from the parent plant. The dried 
fruits are very light and the cluster with the protruding 
pedicels of the old flowers, is easily caught and dragged 
about by animals or man. Many of the seeds may be 
disseminated in this way. 
The lateral branch which shoots forth at the base of the 
fruit cluster, starting its growth about the time that the 
fruits ripen, grows rapidly and by the time the fruits have 
passed the bird stage and approached the stage when the 
cluster is commonly cut off by the Prodoxus larve, the 
growth of the lateral branch has pushed the fruit cluster 
considerably to one side. By this time the leaves of the 
phytomeroid which bore the fruit cluster have usually 
reflexed below the horizontal so that they allow the old 
fruit cluster, when cut off, to fall to the ground without 
resistance or hindrance and direct it outward and away 
from the parent plant as it falls. 
The cut end of the peduncle is usually smooth, showing 
that the cut was extended entirely across the stem with the 
exception of a very thin portion on the outside. This is 
