EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT. 245 



In the large fruits it is clear that a longer stem is a practical 

 accommodation in the turning down of the fruit but with the 

 smaller fruits this is not so evident. 



THE WALL OF PEPPER FRUITS. 



By wall is understood that portion of the pepper fruit that 

 surrounds and bears the placentae or seed-bearing part and in the 

 oval-shaped fruits often forms a dome above the core and in the 

 long slender sorts may bear the seeds upon usually two elongated 

 placentae. 



When young, just after the corolla and stamens have fallen, 

 the wall is comparatively thin and fits closely upon the contents 

 but with growth in size, its thickness increases until its maxi- 

 mum is reached at the time when the fruit is mature. After 

 this there is a shrinking of the wall which is very evident to 

 the eye in the collapse of the formerly firm cover and when dry 

 is papery in thinness and texture. 



The thickest of the free wall is at the apex in all pointed 

 fruits, or the flat or even "dishing'' end of the flat sorts like the 

 "Tomato" and "Squash" peppers, or the rugose tip in the large 

 "bullnose" type, now most familiar in the markets. In short, 

 the thickest wall is at the blossom-end of the fruit when the style 

 is long persistent and in many instances remains as a short point 

 rising abruptly from the end of the oyary whether that be one 

 or the other of the three types above mentioned, namely, ( i ). 

 pointed, (2) smooth, or (3) rugose. 



The wall is not of the same thickness in all other portions 

 of the fruit. Thus a considerable series of measurements taken 

 (i) at the base, (2) at the middle part, and (3) at the apex, 

 show that the thickness is greater at the base than at the middle 

 portion, that is, midway between the point where the wall joins 

 the core (base) and the apex previously mentioned. 



By the same method, it is determined that the wall of round 

 types of peppers, as that of the "Cherry," "Tomato," and 

 "Squash," is much thicker than in the long sorts. While the 

 two types may start out from the bud with practically the same 

 thickness, the former remains round and undergoes great thick- 

 ening until at maturity the fruit is nearly smooth, firm, and 

 heavy because no air space has been developed as found in the 

 very long or large deeply grooved sorts. A study of the growth 

 of the wall in the diverse types may show that the inflated kinds 

 become so by a sort of stretching of the wall that would help 

 to explain how the one is thick and the other comparatively 



