116 ERYTHEA. 



the seed is an apparently perfect embryo with normally in- 

 cumbent thickish cotyledons. In fact, in no feature observed, 

 do the seeds of the inner capsule differ from those of the 

 outer ones. The manner in which the fertilization of these 

 seeds is accomplished (if fertilized they are) is a difficult 

 and most interesting problem. It is possible of course that 

 some of the pollen tubes entering the outer capsule penetrate 

 the style of the inner capsule, — this, however, could only be 

 proved by skillful investigation with copious material repre- 

 senting just the right stages. The inner capsules are mostly 

 axial or nearly so iu their position although they sometimes 

 arise from one of the placentae near the base of the outer 

 capsule. They probably represent a second whorl of carpel- 

 lary leaves. The inner capsules, when well developed, 

 dehisce at maturity with much regularity as shown in Figure 

 17. The culture of the seeds, borne in these internal pods, 

 offers to those, who can procure them in a fresh state, much 

 of interest. By such cultures alone can their possible fertil- 

 ity be demonstrated. 



Searching in literature for mention of similar phenomena 

 the writer has found in a paper by Peyritsch^ the description 

 of closely analogous deformities in the fruit of Drdba alpina, 

 L. In teratological specimens of this plant, investigated by 

 Peyritsch, there were found 3-valved and 4-valved capsules, 

 and in them very commonly were contained 2-valved pods 

 arising as outgrowths of the placentae. Our figure 19 has 

 been redrawn from one by Peyritsch, ^ showing one of these 

 double capsules of Drdba alpina. The reader will have no 

 difficulty in seeing the close structural resemblance between 

 this case and that of T^'opidocarpum capparideum. Yery 

 similar phenomena have been observed in Cheiranihus Cheiri, 

 and the occurrence of 3-carpelled and 4-carpelled pods is by 

 no means infrequent in a number of cruciferous genera, in- 

 deed in some of the western and Siberian forms of Nastur- 

 tium terrestre, K.Br., 3-4-carpelled pods are quite as common 

 as the 2-carpelled. 



1 Pringsheim's Jahrbuch, viii. 119-121. 



2 Peyritsch, 1. c, t. 7, fig 7. 



