116 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1899. 



to become a tendril or some other lateral organ. The stronger 

 shoot from the axillary bud would then be the leader. In many 

 rhamnaceous plants, notably in some species of Zizyphus, though 

 the axillary bud has sufficient force to occupy a position erect and 

 in a direct line with the branch that bore it, thus pushing aside 

 the former leader, it has not energy enough to maintain the leader- 

 ship. The main branch, though forced from the direct line, con- 

 tinues to lead, and then we have the zigzag or flexuose stem. 



Another evidence of the close relationship of Vitacese with the 

 rhamnaceous family is furnished by an occasional tendency in 

 grape berries to assume a valvate capsular form. A case of this 

 some kind fell under the notice of Fl. Von Schlechtendal, who 

 thought it of varietal importance. He figui'cs and describes it 

 in the volume of Linncea for 1830 as Viti-^ vinifera eapsularis. 

 Morphology had not reached the importance it has arrived at 

 to-day. My first opportunity to examine a case of the kind was 

 furnished by Dr. James A. Darrach, of Germantown, Philadelphia, 

 who found it on a bunch of the Flame -colored Tokay, common on 

 our fruit stands as the California grape. It is capsular, five-parted, 

 disclosing the naked seeds attached to an axile placenta, the whole 

 very suggestive of some celastraceous plant. 



The grape is notorious for other morphological vagaries, among 

 which the total absence of seeds in some varieties is to the point. 

 The Corinth, Mokunha and Sultana a)-e also cases. These furnish 

 the currants of commerce. Seedless berries are common among the 

 "fertile ones in many varieties of American species. In one known 

 In gardens as the Lindley, one-half of the berries will be seedless, 

 and sometimes the whole bunch will be of that character. In 

 these the berries do not reach more than one-half the size of the 

 ;seed-bearing ones. The manner in which this variation is accom- 

 plished has been ably set forth in the London Journal of Horti- 

 ■cuUure, of September 3, 1896. It is well-known that many fruits 

 will advance considerably in size in the absence of pollination. 

 The fruits are seedless, and they never reach the dimensions of the 

 fertilized fruits. The osage orange and the cucumber are familiar 

 instances. In the growth of cucumbers under glass every female 

 flower produces a cucumber, but if the grower desires large and fine 

 fruit, he uses the male flowers directly on the females. The 

 isolated female osage oransfc has the seedless " balls " but half 



