20 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



is noticed that the young leaves always have the heaviest 

 covering. A woolly young leaf may' be entirely smooth at 

 maturity. Dr. Weigand's paper is published in the June 

 number of the Botanical Gaj:ette. 



Prolification of Fruits. — When Natui^e makes an 

 abnormal plant or part of a plant, we often see behind the 

 scenes, as it were, and discover a great deal of her methods. 

 This is especially true of the prolification of fruits, which con- 

 sists of one or more fruits being borne within another, or from 

 some unusual part of the flower. It has long been held by 

 botanists, that the stamens and carpels of plants are closely 

 related to leaves in their origin, and in these proliferous fruits, 

 we often find buds, flowers, fruits, or other carpels borne in the 

 axils of the normal carpels, just as if the latter were leaves. 

 Occasionally, too, carpels are borne among the ovules within 

 the regular carpels. The peppers (Capsicum) are given to this 

 latter method and often bear a smaller fruit inside the usual 

 one. 



Proper Definition of Tuber. — Ask any botanist to de- 

 fine a tuber and he will reply in substance that a tuber is a 

 short, thickened underground stem, or part of a stem bearing 

 buds, etc., and then you may assure him that the definition 

 is wrong and you can prove your contention by the dictionary. 

 In many books we are informed that the white or Irish potato 

 is a tuber and that the sweet potato is not, the latter being a 

 root, but according to the dictionary both are true tubers. 

 The question then is, shall botanists make the definition for 

 the dictionary, or vice-versa? Examination of the Manuals 

 of Gray, Wood and Britton make plain the fact that botanists 

 regard a tuber as a thickened underground branch, only, but a 

 recent publication of the United States Government (The 

 Propagation of Plants) insists that the sweet potato is a 

 tuber and this is backed up by the books. All this leads to 



