150 FiIsHER: SEED DEVELOPMENT IN THE GENUS PEPEROMIA 
Orchis resemble one another in the occurrence of two embryo 
sacs in one nucellus, there are, with respect to the integuments, 
at least four different classes: (1) That represented by Peperomia 
in which each fertile lobe of the nucellus has an independent single 
integument, (2) That represented by Monotropa in which both 
embryo sacs are surrounded by the same single integument, (3) 
That represented by Morus, the ovules of which have two integu- 
ments, in which both embryo sacs are within the same inner 
integument, (4) That represented by Gymnadenia and Orchis in 
which each lobe has a separate inner integument but both lobes 
are within a common outer integument. It seems that in cases 
like Morus and Monotropa we have two gametophytes developed 
within a single megasporangium, although divided or forked, 
for it is still all inside of the single integument, or inside the inner 
integument, if there be two. And it may be but a step from this 
to cases like Peperomia and Orchis, which, if they have more than 
teratological significance, probably either represent an approach 
to a condition of more than one ovule in a carpel, or they constitute 
atavistic appearances of a similar condition. ) 
PEPEROMIA SCANDENS Ruiz & Pav. 
The material for the study of Peperomia scandens Ruiz & 
Pav. was collected in the greenhouse of The Johns Hopkins 
University at Homewood, from a plant brought from Jamaica. 
In its native habitat, the plant commonly grows at low altitudes 
as an epiphyte upon the trunks of trees. 
The flower-spikes of P. scandens are about the same length and 
about the same diameter as those of P. reflexa. The most obvious 
differences are that the mature fruits of the former are hardly at 
all sunk in the axis, while those of the latter are deeply sunk (FIGS. 
4, 17, 32, 33), and that the fruits of the former have long, curved 
beaks, while those of the latter have only very short straight beaks. 
The carpel of P. scandens is sessile in the axil of a peltate bract, 
which closely resembles those of the two preceding species. Up to 
the sixteen-nucleate stage of the embryo sac, the carpel is sunk in 
the spike to such a depth that the stigma and beak of the carpel 
barely project outside the surface. At this stage, the stalk of the 
bract is entirely sunken in a separate cavity just below the one 
