114 EEYTHEA. 



and a noteworthy proof that this is not merely a theoretical 

 series, but represents the real mode of origin of the more 

 complicated pods, is shown by such individuals as are repre- 

 sented in figures 9 and 12. For at the base of the inflores- 

 cence in these cases we have pods of the gracile type, while 

 above them we find the same gradual series of changes in the 

 fruit, which have been described at length, and which lead 

 at the summit to the 4-valved, unicellular capparideum type. 



Perhaps, however, the most curious and significant mark 

 of monstrosity remains to be mentioned, namely, the small 

 inner capsule not infrequently developed in the pods of the 

 capparideum type. The so-called T. capparideum, Greene, 

 appears to have been collected first at Lathrop, Calif., by 

 Mr. Lemmon. Some of his plants were referred to Drs. 

 Gray and Watson, who regarded them as monstrous forms of 

 T. gracile. Hook. Dr. Watson, noting the interestiug nature 

 of the internal capsules, sent some of the material to Mr. 

 Masters, and a rough figure and brief description of such a 

 capsule were published in the Gardeners^ Chronicle, new 

 (2nd) ser. xvii. 11, f. 1. In revising the genus for the Synop- 

 iical Flora, the writer observed on four individual plants 

 secured by three different collectors, no less than fifteen in- 

 stances of these small pods, in various degrees of develop- 

 ment, inclosed in the larger fruits. Upon these observations, 

 it was stated that the capsules of T. capparideum commonly 

 contained near the base a small capsule-like structure. 



From the facts here presented, the reader will be in a posi- 

 tion to judge of the merits of the following portion of Prof. 

 Greene's recent Revision of Tropidocarpum?- "It [T. cap- 

 parideum] has invariably a 4-valved pod and 4 placentae. 

 The valves separate from the placentae beginning at the top, 

 just as in the capparids, and when all four of the valves have 

 fallen away, the four placentae joined together at the summit 

 remain in place, quite as in certain genera of Papaveraceoc. 

 The pods are constantly devoid of every trace of a partition, 

 and there is not the least suggestion of anything anomalous 



1 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Pliila., 1895, 654. 



