142 Rhodora [AvavsT 
Mr. Smith, concerned a “double” White Oak (Quercus alba) seedling 
found on Staten Island in March, 1886. Her note was published in 
the “Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club," vol. XIII, June 1886, 
p. 95. 
Professor Francis E. Lloyd in observations upon germinating acorns 
of Quercus garryana in western Oregon, under the title “Teratological 
Notes," published in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, vol. 
XXII, 1895, p. 397, says “A number of acorns have been found with 
two fertilized and developed ovules. "The presence of the supernumer- 
ary seed is betrayed by the unsymmetrical shape of the acorn. The 
rightful occupant — if might makes right — is usually well developed 
and pushes out its radicle earlier than does the intruder, which is 
correspondingly smaller and flattened and twisted out of shape. 
Occasionally, when the supernumerary seed is large, if its position is 
favorable it gets its radicle out of the ruptured apex first. At all 
events it makes a brave effort to reach soil and sunlight. A few acorns 
have been found in which the two plantlets had developed into two 
well-formed seedlings. Acorns containing more than one seed have 
all been found under young trees. In no case have I found such under 
aged trees." 
Without reference to the records above cited, as well as those made 
by European observers, I had from my own observations considered 
the development of plural seeds in acorns so common, particularly in 
some species of oak, such as Quercus rubra, that I have accepted it as 
a perfectly natural and frequent phenomenon worthy of being con- 
sidered incidentally by the arboriculturist or silviculturist, and for 
many years I have called the attention of my students in forestry to 
these common exceptions to the general rule, since they have a direct 
bearing upon practical silviculture. 
Plural seeds appear to be most common among, if not almost con- 
fined to, species of Oaks having naturally large fruits. In northeastern 
America the Red Oak probably averages larger fruit than any other 
species and, in my experience, this tree is likely to show, more than 
others of the region, a larger proportion of fruits producing plural 
seeds. I think this tendency is indicated in our natural woods by the 
fact that Red Oaks so often are double trunked, a feature not confined 
to this species of course, in fact not rarely seen in White Oak and 
Chestnut Oak and others. Also it must be borne in mind that double 
trunks may and often do develop because of some accident to the 
