PROLIFICATION OF FRUIT. : 135 
produced no seeds but contained five smaller fruits, like- 
wise without seeds and with short styles and almost obso- 
lete stigmas, disposed upon the apex of the thalamus. In 
the other type the fruits were quite normal externally and 
bore numerous seeds but produced also a single included 
fruit at the top of the axis. According to Penzig, Borbds 
describes central prolification in Capsicum. Halsted * 
saw, in the same genus, asmall included fruit which origin- 
ated from the apex of the axis, and Viviand-Morel f figures 
an almost identical case, while Raymondaud f{ also figures 
an internal fruit. Penzig § reports central prolification as 
especially common. 
In 1902 a considerable plot was devoted to the cultiva- 
tion of capsicums at the Missouri Botanical Garden. 
Fruit-like bodies were noticed occasionally during the 
summer in those gathered for table use, and late in the 
autumn the entire crop was gathered and the fruits were 
dissected for the purpose of determining the frequency of 
the anomaly. Other material was secured for the purpose 
of comparison during the present year, but since it yielded 
only corroborative evidence and was not large enough in 
amount to permit of statistical discussion the following 
statements are based on the series collected in 1902. 
From the literature cited above it seems that the carpel- 
or fruit-like structures may originate in three ways: — by 
central prolification or diaphysis, by prolification from the 
axils of the carpels or ecblastesis, and by the transforma- 
tion of the primordium of an ovule into a carpellary body. 
All of these phenomena have been seen in other genera of 
plants and are to be regarded as representing valid cate- 
gories, but it proved impossible to divide the anomalies 
* Halsted, B. D. Bull. Torr. Bot, Club. 183151. fig. 1891.— Pop. 
Sci. Mo. 422 321-322. fig. 16. 1893. 
+ Viviand-Morel, J. V. Lyon Horticole. 943582. fig. 1902. 
¢ Raymondaud, E. Rev. Sci. Limousin. 12 3369-372, 1904. 
§ Penzig, O. l.c. 
Ps c ae | 
FP tye oe 
