EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT. 243. 



is easy to note the grouping of the fruit-bearing stems, quite in 

 contrast with the singleness as shown in i. 



The extreme brevity in pepper stems is illustrated in 36/20 I, 

 which is a cross of the last mentioned "Red Cranberry" (36) 

 and the "Red Cherry" (20), in this case the plant adhering to 

 the type of the dwarf-stemmed clustered-leaved parent. In this 

 plant, shown at 5, the whole main stem was less than six inches 

 long, while the quite sizable, much crowded fruits extended their 

 tips upwards in all directions. Such plants could be grown in 

 rows of several in a hill, like string beans. It is worthy of note 

 that in breeding, the clustered form of leaf opposes the scat- 

 tered type, some plants showing one or the other in the second 

 generation. 



PEPPER FLOWERS. 



Plate XIII shows thirty-one flowers of peppers selected re- 

 gardless of the variety because they vary considerably upon 

 the same plant. Size of the flower and number of lobes of the 

 corolla are the chief features of the engraving in question, the 

 blooms being arranged with the face uppermost. At the upper 

 left-hand corner (i) is shown a sample of the smallest of all 

 the blooms grown. As a rule, the size of the blossom is a 

 good index of the size of the fruit that is to follow ; for example, 

 the blossom at the opposite corner of the plate and particularly 

 the one above it would have developed into a mammoth pepper 

 sought for stuffing, etc. 



As the eye glances along the first row (2-3), it will be ob- 

 served that while the blossom increases in size, the number of 

 lobes remains five, blit their size and shape are very different. 

 Near the middle (4) of the next row, the change is made from 

 five to six lobes but the size is not correspondingly increased ; in 

 other words, the plate shows a long series (11 instances) of 

 flowers of six lobes — i^erhaps the most general number among 

 commercial peppers — ending with the third row (6). Those 

 with seven lobes are shown in the first five flowers of the fourth 

 row (7-8), which ends with a bloom (9) with the unusual num- 

 ber of eight lobes to the large showy corolla. 



As a rule, the number of stamens agrees with that of the 

 corolla lobes so that in the smaller flowers and presumably near 

 to the wild type, the parts of the flower are as follows : calyx 

 and corolla lobes, five each ; stamens, five ; and the pistil, one 

 with two seed cavities. 



The parts within the corolla are so dark that the photograph 

 does not sliow them and onlv the relative size of the voung^ fruit 



