I 



228 



The Plant World. 



an inch shorter. The specimen was taken f ro n the center of a 

 bunch of bananas and either part of the double fruit could have 

 been mistaken for single fruit so far as size was concerned. 



Cross sections were made fron the base to the top of the 

 specimen. For the first half -inch above the fruit stalk the 

 specim.en showed two distinct bases with pericarps of normal 

 thickness which were only slightly connected, In this region the 

 fibro-vascular bundles between the two bases were of ordinary 

 size and had their usual distribution. At two inches above the 

 base all exterior indication of two pericarps disappeared except 

 a slight depression along the convex side but cross sections 

 showed that between the two ripened ovaries there was about 

 one-half the tissue of a normal pericarp. This tissue contained 



seven fibrovascular bundles which seemed to be slightly smaller 



than norm^al and had assumed an oval shape because of pressure. 

 In the middle of the specim.en the bundles were still less 



distinct and somewhat more 



flattened, while at one inch from 



the top the bundles becam.e so 



dwarfed that they were almost 



obliterated. At the base of the 



specimen the bundles between 



the united portions had been 



quite evenly distributed, but as 



they cam,e close to the top onlv 



the center one remained in po- 

 sition while the three on either 



side had been crowded over 



toward the live pericarp. At 



the top of the specimen along 



the line of union there was onlv 



a trace of the pericarp tissue and 



this closely resembled the edible 



portion of the fruit. 



As might be expected there 



was an abnormal thickening of 



the pericarp at the edges of the 



union which contained more 



fibrovascular bundles than anv 



Figure 5. 



