EXPERIMENT STATION EEPORT. 315 



KANGK OF LEAF FORMS IN PEPPERS. 



As witli many other kinds of plants there is, with peppers, con- 

 siderable ranire of sizes and shapes in the leaves upon the same 

 plant — dependent upon location upon the stem and the many cor.- 

 ditions of liiiht, moistnre, food-supply, Szc. ; there are, however, 

 among the varieties a number of types of more or less definiteness. 

 For example, a strong contrast is seen between the foliage of 65 

 ("Ruby Pearl") aud 4 ("Bird's Eye"), sprays of which are shown 

 side by side in Plate XIV. A careful study of the foliage, how- 

 ever, confirms the belief that the evident difference is chiefly oue 

 of size. In the next pair, 9 ("Small Chile") and 31 ("Upright 

 Sweet Salad"), while the most evident difference is size — as 

 judged from the ])ictnre these leaves have much longer petioles 

 than in the first pair. A medium' large leaf with long petiole is 

 shown at 60 ("Xaleidescope'*) in striking contrast with a sort this 

 year received from Washington, D. C, without name (Xo. 22803, 

 U. S. D. X.). A very long form of leaf is shown at 37 ("Giant 

 Yellow King"), while at 67 ("Japanese Chile") and 56 ("Yel- 

 low Chile") are seen twO' types of plants — the low and the dwarf, 

 res]Tectively, showing the lanceolate leaves with very large petioles 

 jwodueed in quite dense clusters and mingled with the fruit, and 

 gi^'ing reason for this form being placed in a separate species.* 



It might seem almost a matter of necessity that the petioles 

 should be long in the form in question, and it remains tO' be noted 

 what effect upon this charactC'r has the breeding of such plants 

 with others, of the more o^rdinary sort, like 11 ("Coral Gem") 

 and 34 ("Christmas"), or the 48 ("Xew Tomato") with the long 

 intcrnodes and, therefore' widely separated leaves. 



SEEDT.ESS FRUITS. 



The small sorts of peppers, either of the lance or spherical types, 

 are, as a rule, packed with seeds, but with the large inflated sorts, 

 having the sides' ridged and free, the end deeply lobed ("bull- 

 nose"), the seeds make up but a comparatively small portion of the 

 whole fruit. It is among the latter only that seedless speeimens 



*Capsicnm fasciculatum by Sturtevant, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, 15-133-1888. 



