162 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



POLYCAEPY IN THE APPLE. 



Yellow Newtown apple, having seven carpels, 

 size. 



Natural 



latter specimen had six calyx lobes, though the multiplication of carpels 

 seems to take place as a rule independently of the other floral organs. 

 An extra sepal, or possibly a bract, below the calyx and on the side of 

 the tube, is not so very uncommon on fruits otherwise normal in struc- 

 ture and persists in the fruit as a scale on the side of the apple, usually 

 deforming it somewhat. 



I have never observed the suppression of carpels in apples of the 

 ordinary varieties, though it may occur in some of the so-called seedless 

 or coreless forms. In case one or more of the pistils fail to receive 

 pollen while the remainder are successfully pollinated, the correspond- 

 ing carpels appear always to develop more or less with the growth of 

 the fruit, though they remain empty. 1 



Double apples, though comparatively rare, have occasionally been 

 described and two such fruits were found at Pullman last season, one 

 in the orchard of the experiment station, the other in an orchard adjoin- 

 ing the college campus, while a third was received from Wenatchee. 



i Since these notes were written a student has discovered specimens of the 

 Rome and Gano varieties having four carpels and very rarely three carpels; also 

 seven carpels in the latter variety. 



