YaMPOLSKY: Study of OU palm. 141 



aproaches the tliick shelled forni. It is quite évident tliat a fruit of tlie 

 character of the oiie sliown in Figure 66 wiil yield less pericarp tliaii aiiy 

 of the others excludiiig the thick shelled form. This is of importance to 

 the selectionist who is seeking to establish a form with a minimum amount 

 of waste product — the shell and its éléments are designated as such by 

 the commercial exploiter of the oil palm. 



Pisifera or shell-less form of fruit. 



The so called shell-less form is the other extrême of a séries the 

 other end being occupied by the thick shelled form. in Figures 68 and 69 

 the cross and longitudinal sections of this form are seen. in this form, it 

 lias already been stated, the shell is entirely missing. in the cross section the 

 eccentric circle represents the endosperm. The bounding Une is not a 

 reduced shell but a layer of cork cells surrounding the endosperm in ail 

 forms and which is readily separated from the shell in the forms with a 

 shell. A section of such a cork layer is shown in Figure 146 Plate XVII. 

 The crescent like structure in immédiate contact with cork layer is the oper- 

 culum, which organ plays an important rôle during germination. In the 

 cross section the extent of the dark fibres is shown deliminating the area 

 normally occupied by the shell. In the longitudinal section thèse fibres are 

 seen traversing the leno;th of the fruit. 



In many of the fruits in a bunch the embryo is normally developed 

 and an endosperm is présent; in other fruits from the bunch there is 

 neither embryo nor endosperm — there are however dark fibres présent. 

 Ail the indications point to a pathological condition. That has been 

 already suggested by BecCARI (I.c). 



Ail the variations that exist in shell thickness, shell size, pericarp thick- 

 ness, kernel size hâve not been included hère. One can readily arrange 

 from spécimens taken from the trees that occur in a plantation a progres- 

 sive séries of parts of fruits showing réduction or increase in size of 

 individual parts of the fruits. From the types of shell that hâve been dis- 

 cussed such a séries can be made from the forms shown in Plate VIII. 

 However, it is not maintained that they indicate an evolutionary séries. 



Fruit with accessory floral parts. 



A type of fruit that has been recently given a spécifie rank by 

 Annet(') Elaeis Poissoni, the Klude form described by Gruner {'2) from 

 Togo, the diwakkawaka of BÛCHER and FICKENDEY {^), is characterized by 

 the présence of, as a rule, six accessory stérile carpels surrounding the 

 normal fruit. Thèse accessory carpels contain oil like the pericarp of the 

 fruit and for that reason this form is considered valuable if it can maintain 

 its character. This form is found also with thick, médium and thin shell. 

 (Text figures 56 A, B, C, D, and E.) Examples of the forms are grown 

 in Java. 



