154. FisHER: SEED DEVELOPMENT IN THE GENUS PEPEROMIA 
This species is peculiar for a Peperomia, in that it has compound 
flower-spikes. In the genus Peperomia, which comprises some » 
four hundred species, nearly all have the flowers in simple spikes. 
But in this species the flowers are borne in conical panicles with a 
central axis and numerous lateral branches, the flowers being 
sessile in the axils of bracts and limited in their distribution to the 
branches of the inflorescence, except the apical portion of the cen- 
tral axis, as is usual in paniculate inflorescences. 
The development of the carpel and ovule, from the definitive 
archesporial cell, or embryo sac mother-cell stage, up to the sixteen- 
nucleate embryo sac stage, coincides very closely with that of P. 
reflexa. In several cases rudimentary or evanescent walls were 
clearly visible in the two- and four-nucleate stages. 
PEPEROMIA BLANDA HBK. 
The material for the study of P. blanda HBK. was collected 
in the greenhouse of The Johns Hopkins University at Homewood. 
The development of the embryo sac, from the embryo sac 
mother-cell stage to the 16-nucleate stage, closely resembles that 
of P. reflexa. Evanescent walls were seen in the two- and four- 
nucleate stages (FIG. 36). The number of peripheral nuclei cut 
off in the mature sac is about eight and seems to vary above and 
below this number. 
This species differs from the others examined in this study, in 
that the stigma is both above and below the external opening of 
the stylar canal and is not limited to the anterior or lower part 
of the carpel. 
Two cases were found in which the ovule was lobed in a manner 
similar to those of P. verticillata. And three cases were observed 
in which there were two ovules in one carpel. These lobed ovules 
and twin ovules doubtless have the same significance as the lobed 
ovules of P. verticillata. 
Baillon (2, p. 140) calls attention to an approach to the 
anatropous condition in the ovules of this species and states that 
the ovule is inclined toward the anterior side of the ovary. A” 
examination of a number of ovules, however, shows that this 
feature is not constant. In fact, the ovules are usually inclined 
toward the axis of the inflorescence, that is, toward the posterior 
side of the ovary, but the micropyle may be either anterior OF 
posterior to the apex of the ovule. 
