PROLIFICATION OF FRUIT. 139 
Some suggestive points are to be gathered from this 
table. The slender-fruited varieties classified under C’. 
annuum acuminatum and C. annuum longum show only 
two cases of prolification although nearly 1,100 fruits were 
dissected. Of the 2,671 fruits examined from the ten 
garden varities of C’. annuum grossum, C. annuum abbre- 
viatum and OC. annuum cerasiforme, 340, or 12.7%, 
show prolification in some form. But that the relative 
length and diameter of the fruit is not the only factor 
involved is rendered probable by the three exceptions 
among these ten short-fruited varieties. The absence of 
abnormal fruits in Ruby King may be a chance result due 
to the small series of material examined, but this ex- 
planation cannot be offered for Etna and Red Wrinkled. 
The chief conclusions to be drawn from the literature 
and from the present series of observations are the fol- 
lowing. 
The included bodies are doubtless formed by the three 
processes heretofore recognized as giving rise to intra- 
carpellary fruits, namely diaphysis, ecblastesis, and pistil- 
lody of the ovule primordium, but the fruit of Capsicum is 
not suitable for a determination of the number of cases to 
be referred to each category. 
In form the bodies vary greatly, but two main types — 
rounded or irregularly contorted, and linear—are to be 
recognized. The more or less isodiametric form is almost 
invariably found at the apex of the torus or at the base of 
the seed-bearing region. The linear form may occupy any 
position. 
Histologically the bodies are very similar to the wall of 
the fruit. 
Prolification of the fruit, using the term to cover all 
three phenomena mentioned above, is very common in 
several garden varieties of Capsicum. It is practically 
wanting in the slender-fruited forms, although some var- 
ieties form exceptions to this rule. 
