99 



the crown at the top of a normal pine-apple. The rest of the 

 surface is covered with numerous fruitlets. 



As to the dimensions the height of the specimen without 

 leaves amounts to 13 cm. and its width to 17 c. m. In adding 

 the leaves the dimensions become 16. 5 and 22. 5 c. m. 



Besides the four said rays there must have been at the base 

 another excrescence judging from the there appearing cicatrice. 



The stalk which supported the whole was deeply furrowed 



on both sides foreshadowing bifurcation as is proved by fig. 3 



which represents a transverse section of the fruit. It shows 



two fruits much enlarged and touching one another by their 



convex surfaces while the ribs diverge. At the end of each 



rib there are of course leaves to be seen. The fifth ray 



falls beyond the plane of the section. The most remarkable 



thing of the fact is that one stem bears at the top three 



fruits — or portions of one — which are in no mutual con- 

 nection. 



Mr. Huysmans, photographer at the Buitenzorg Gardens, 

 presented us with a figure, done by him on a fruit-show (fig. 

 4). It represents a ramification of one pine-apple; no less 

 than 10 crowns spring from the main fruit (the latter being 

 only little transformed) and seem to have all of them a secon- 

 dary crown as point of support. In connection with this a 

 paper of Mel. T. Cook on monstrous pine-apples deserves 

 attention.') We learn from this that a special variety „ Smooth 

 Cayenne" cultivated in a plantation produces so many malfor- 

 mations that as much as 25^^/0 of the fruits was unfit for sale. 

 The deviations of which the figures accompany the paper, are 

 arranged as follows: 



1. Small fruit without a crown. 



2. Fruits of different size and with a crown that is often 

 reduced to V4 of the normal size. 



3. Fruit with two separate crowns. 



4. « „ „ united „ 



1) Teratologia de la Piiia. Tom. del Primer Informe Anual de la Eitacion Central 

 Agronoraica de Cuba, 1906. 



