€m^^W 



w ^r f 



FIGS WITH MISPLACED SCALES 



The fi^r has a very peculiar structure, not closely paralleled in other families of plants, the fruit 

 being in the nature of a hollow branch with the flowers on the inside. A minute aperture at the end 

 of the cavity allows the fig-insects to bring in pollen and fertilize the flowers. Normal hgs have 

 small scales, or "bracts," at the mouth of the aperture and at the base of the stalk, but scales are 

 not scattered on the surface of the fruit as in the more or less abnormal specunens shown in these 

 natural-size photographs. r. j /^ i-r • • +u 



► Such abnormalities occurred on many trees in a seedhng orchard at Bard, Lalilornia, in tne 

 spring of 1917. Some fruits had only one or two scales misplaced, others several scales, while the 

 more striking cases had scales in a regular spiral sequence or forming a distinct rim, as though 

 two fruits were partially formed, one inside the other. (Fig. 16.) 



