132 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



General Notes ox ti-ie Development of the Flower 



Parts. 



As already stated, the pistil in the staminate flowers, 

 may be rudimentary or it may be entirely lacking, and 

 it has been possible with the staminate, perfect and pis- 

 tillate flowers to arrange a series ranging from flowers 

 in which there is no sign of an ovary on one side, through 

 to those containing the highest development of the ovary 

 on the other. In such a series it will be noted that other 

 parts of the flower vary in sympathy with the size of 

 the ovary. The calyx is very small where the ovary is 

 lacking, it is slightly larger in specimens having a rudi- 

 mentary ovary, it is larger still in the perfect flowers 

 and reaches its greatest development in the pistillate 

 form. The corolla is smallest in those flowers having 

 no pistil, its greatest transverse diameter is reached 

 when the pistil increases to its maximum size. If the 

 ovary is lacking, the corolla falls away from the calyx 

 with its base closed, but if the pistil is rudimentary and 

 of some size, the base is open. The opening in the base 

 corresponds to the size of the ovary and varies with it, 

 reaching its largest size in the pistillate flowers. Again 

 in the staminate flowers the number of stamens is 16 to 

 24, in the perfect flowers usually 16-18 and in the pistil- 

 late flowers 8 are found. Broadly speaking, this varia- 

 tion may be stated thus:— when the size of the ovary 

 decreases, the number of stamens increases, reaching the 

 maximum number when the ovary is rudimentary or is 

 lacking entirely. 



Grouping Based on Flowering Habit. 



Based on the behavior of persimmon trees in the pro- 

 duction of flowers the varieties now growing in America 

 may be divided into three groups,— (1) Those on which 

 staminate flowers are never produced, — examples, ''Tan- 

 enashi," ''Tsuru," '^'Hachiya," ^'Hyakume," "Tri- 



