EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT. 287 



Cell-Number in the Fruit of the Prairie Berry. 



! A Study of the Heredity of Fluctuation. 



B. H. A. GROTH^ PH. D. 



The Prairie Berry (also called Prairie Huckleberry, Garden 

 Huckleberry) is a wild and cultivated large variety of the Black 

 Nightshade {Solanum nigrum L.) It was introduced to this 

 station from Prof. N. E. Hanson, of the South Dakota Station, 

 some years ago. Like other species of the genus Solanum, it 

 shows fluctuation in the number of cells of the fruit, and pre- 

 vious to 1909 an effort had been made at this station to increase 

 by selection the size of fruit and number of cells, as the 

 berries, though not edible when raw, make a very palatable pre- 

 serve. (See Plate XXVIII.) 



At the decease of Mr. Shore the work with the prairie berry 

 was turned over to the writer. It was soon noted that the fruits 

 of this plant appear to hold an intermediate position in respect to 

 cell number, between the black nightshade, which is largely 2- 

 celled with only occasional 3- and 4-celled fruits, and the tomato, 

 which has distinct types, some of which are almost regularly 2- 

 celled, other 2- to 4-celled, others many-celled. Among the 

 many-celled tomatoes the "Ponderosa" types have the flowers 

 and fruits distinguished by a marked fasciation. The corolla 

 and calyx are many-lobed, the style is flattened, and the ovary 

 cut up into many cells seemingly without order. It is known 

 that the character of fruit fasciation has become fixed within 

 recent times, and it is therefore very probable that the same pro- 

 cess might be observed in a nearly related plant, as the Prairie 

 Berry. 



Among plants raised in the greenhouse from a close-fertilized 

 six-celled fruit, one plant, which had been given special care, 

 produced a single fasciated fruit of 8 cells, which was harvested 

 in the fall of 1909. From the seeds of this fruit all Prairie 

 Berry plants discussed in this paper have descended. 



Some of the seeds were planted in the greenhouse in a box 

 1x2 ft. X I ft. high filled with very rich soil and given the best 

 of care. At the age of 10 days only the one strongest seedling 

 was retained and all others destroyed. This remaining plant 

 was called Plant i. 



