I9I5] 



/. Arthur Harris and Ross Aiken G ortner 



75 



There seems to be some evidence in favor of the conclusion that 

 the mean molecular weight of the solutes f rom the abnormal struc- 

 ture is higher than that from the ovary wall. There are 29 cases 

 in which the mean molecular weight f or the included mass is higher 

 than that £or the ovary wall, to 22 cases in which the reverse is 

 true. In four instances the two values are identical. The aver- 

 ages for the three major series of determinations are as follows : 



In all cases the averages for the solutes of the proliferous mass are 

 higher than for those of the fruit wall, but the probable error of 

 the difference is so high that little weight is to be attached to it. 



While these results are by no means conclusive they seem to 

 indicate that the solutes in the sap of the proliferous mass have a 

 slightly greater average molecular weight than the solutes in the 

 sap of the ovary wall. Such a conclusion would be in good agree- 

 ment with the result noted under (D) above, i. e., that the organic 

 materials form a greater proportion of the dissolved substances in 

 the sap of the prolification than they do in the sap of the ovary 

 wall. It is but reasonable to suppose that the organic substances 

 have a greater molecular weight than have the ions and undissoci- 

 ated molecules of the inorganic salts. 



5. Summary and conclusions. In Passiflora gracilis prolific- 

 ation of the fruit f requently occurs. This generally consists in the 

 production of a series of whorls of incompletely closed carpels 

 borne on a short stalk arising from the bottom of the fruit cavity, 

 and represents in all probability a continuation of the main axis 

 which gave rise to the carpels entering into the composition of the 

 fruit wall. 



As one of the steps in the analysis of the factors to which this 

 highly remarkable teratological Variation is due, we have had under 

 investigation for some time the physico-chemical properties of the 

 cell sap of the normal and teratological fruits, and of the parts of 

 the teratological fruit. 



