108 



A couple of other pseudo-tubers produced at their tops a 

 shoot with a good many roots. 



It is difficult to say whether there is any connection be- 

 tween the appearance of foUage-\ea,Yes on an inflorescence and 

 the unfolding of the tuber-leaves failing to come. 



MYRISTICACEAE. 



Myinstica fragrans Houtt. 



Coll. The Resident of Ternate 1907. 



Habitat The Moluccas. 



In 1898 I had an opportunity of giving a description of double 

 fruits of Myristica fragrans a propos of a double nutmeg and 

 two compound fruits which Prof. M. Treub had the kindness 

 to hand over to me for examination. The two fruits were four- 

 instead of two-valved, as is to be seen in the the added figures ') 

 A few years later, in 1904, Prof. J. M. Janse (Leyden) wrote 

 elaborately in the same periodical ^), in consequence of research- 

 es in the Moluccas, on the same subject under the title: 

 „les noix muscades doubles". In this paper he pointed out 

 that the two nuts which may be found in one fruit do not 

 always show the same degree of development, or to express it 

 more precisely, that it is the additional one which can stop 

 at all degrees of development between a little quantity of mace 

 and a perfect nut. But however slight the indication of the 

 second nut may be, the fruit is always four-valved, this circum- 

 stance being consequently the first sign of its being compound. 



In the same paper Prof. Janse records six-valved and eight- 

 valved fruits i. e. consisting of three and four carpels. Although 

 he has seen them on the spot he failed to get hold of some and 

 had consequently to resort only to a specimen which is 

 in fact double but with the outerside of which a smaller fruit 

 had grown together. In the latter a small quantity of mace 

 was contained enclosing a rudimentary nut. 



I so was happy to find in the Buitenzorg material of 1910 a 



4) Ann. du Jardin bot. de Buitenzorg Vol. XV, 1, p. 40. 

 2) » » » » » » 2e Serie, Vol. IV. p. 1. 



