^'10 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Dcc.^ 



Striking of these, presented to the writer by Henry Hallowell & 

 Son, was an almost completely open fan, the individual fruits 

 being arranged in a semicircular manner, as shown in the accom- 

 panying figure, reproduced from a photograph of one of the largest 

 fasciated specimens. These fasciated pineapples, known to the 

 trade as " Freak " or " Cockscomb Pineapples," seem to be not 

 at all uncommon, Henry Hallowell & Son had at least a dozen 

 or more specimens, besides the one presented to the writer. The 

 smallest of these consisted of two united pineapples, and the largest 

 (twenty inches across, twelve inches high) showed the union of a 

 dozen or more. The fasciated fruits in nearly all instances were 

 arranged regularly side by side; in some illustrations, however, 

 one or two fruits crowded out of the fan-shaped mass during growth 

 projected in several directions, so that the combined mass consisted 

 of an irregularly disposed row of united pineapples. A stem, one 

 to two inches in diameter, common to all of the united fruits, was 

 present in all the cases examined. 



Apparently from a count of the more concave, flat side of the 

 monstrosity shown in the plate, there were ten pineapples united 

 together, as outlined by the deep grooves which ran between them. 

 On the other, more convex- face, twelve united masses were 

 discernible, all arising from a common stalk one and a half inches 

 in diameter, with a number of lanceolate, involucral leaves about 

 six to eight inches long at the base of the clustered fruits. A 

 count, however, of the tufts of crown leaves would indicate, if 

 each fruit in the bunch had only one crown tuft, that many more 

 fruits than ten or twelve were aggregated together. The coronal 

 tufts of leaves form a continuous growth over the entire top of 

 the fasciation, as shown in the plate. It was difficult to count 

 the tufts therefore, on account of their massing together, but the 

 most careful count possible under the circumstances gave fifty tufts 

 as the result of the enumeration. It seeiped hardly likely, how- 

 ever, that the fasciated mass consisted of that many fruits, and to 

 decide the matter a section was made through the monstrosity by 

 means of a saw, and such a section showed twenty distinct upward 

 projecting divisions of the fleshy fasciation. Whether each division 

 represented a fruit, it was not possible to determine by the exam- 

 ination. 



The monstrosity, which had a pleasant pineapple aroma, was 



