MISCELLAMiOUS NOTES. 513 



No. XXV.— PHENOMENA OF INTERCHANGEABILITY OF VEGETA- 

 TIVE AND FRUIT STRUCTURES IN OFUNTIA ELATIOR, Mill. 



{Withriates I and II.) 



lu many a village of the Deccan, this Opuntia occurs gregariously 

 filling up all unoccupied spaces of the village site. It is also found growing 

 as a tall and compact hedge along boundaries of cultivated iields border- 

 ing on much frequented village paths or cart tracks. In these positions 

 it forms a pest of the village as it harbours wild pigs, snakes and other 

 obnoiious creatures. 



This Cactus (^prickly pear) usually bears its crimson coloured fruits on 

 the margins of phylloclades in variable numbers. Sometimes two or 

 three are found to occur at the same level growing near each other. In 

 the ordinary course, these fruits drop down on ripening, lu size they are 

 about 1-| inch to If inch by 1:^ to f inch pear-shaped and deeply coloured. 

 Sometimes one finds a fruit growing from the top of a sister fruit. Dr. 

 William Burns mentions i^vide Agricultural Journal of India, Vol. IX, 

 Fart IV, pages 336-365) a case of a negative structure growing from the 

 fruits of this species of Cactus. But the peculiarities presented by the 

 subjects photographed in figures 1, II and III are not recorded. The 

 specimens pictured here were found growing as branches of individual 

 plants in the village hedge-row at Bliatkunki, a village in the Bijapur 

 district (h-At. \~^ N., Long. 76'^ E. approximately). They were collected by 

 the writer on 27th May 1914. 



lu Fig. 1 is to be seen a succession of 4 fruits place one upon another 

 growing in succession. The fourth or the topmost one bears at its rim, 

 other fruits which again have another succession of 3 or bunches of fruits, 

 the last maintaining the saine kind of succession again. At the extremity 

 of each bunch are to be seen dried remnants of one or more flowers. In 

 this specimen (Fig. I) the usual colouration of the fruit was fully developed 

 upon the lowermost four fruits. In the upper ones also although the 

 intensity of the colour gradually diminished from bottom to top ones 

 (increasing to green) still a tendency to develop it more and more accord- 

 ing to the maturity of the fruit was to be seen here very clearly indeed. 

 I cut open all the four lower fruits. They were full of soft pulp which 

 tasted rather insipid or very slightly sour. No seeds were found. The 

 two fruits on the upper branches were also examined. They were rather 

 hollow not containing any pulp, but had some juice. One seed was found 

 in each. 



In Fig. II we find a phyUoclade which has produced marginally five 

 fruit structures, two of which had fully developed the normal coloration 

 and are devoid of any lateral branching. The three others were not so 

 deeply coloured. One of these has produced two joints successively. 

 From one of the remaining, a fruit is produced which again bears three 

 sister fruits from its top and a phylloclade from one of the last. The 

 second bears a succession of fruits. 



Fig. Ill is a still more curious specimen. In this, one can see alternate 

 developments of fruits and joints from one another and a string of fruits 

 also. A transitional stage is to be seen at // . I cut open the middle 

 lowermost, thick and swollen fruit of the specimen photographed here. 

 It contained juice and one fairly large seed. 



The seeds found from specimens of figures I and III were unfortunately 

 lost before they could be sown. 



In the three specimens above described, it was noticeable that the fruits 

 were always more strongly coloured and the phylloclades generally green, 

 although these also, now and then, presented pink colour. Besides their 

 shape, the presence of a terminal hollow with a marginal rim and the 



