Development of Cassytha filijormis, L. 401 
At times it runs along the white sandy ground a distance 
of eight or ten feet, becoming of a tawny yellow color, till 
it again reaches some host plant. 
The plant will be treated of as follows: 
I. Fruit and seed structure. 
2. Seed germination. 
3. Seedling growth. 
4. Relation of the seedling to the mature plant. 
5. Histology of seedling plant. 
6. Histology of mature plant. 
. Fruit and Seed Structure——Of the spike of four to 
eight flowers the lower ones mature first, and there seem 
to be considerable differences between the members of a 
single spike in time of flowering, as the lower fruits are 
sometimes fairly well on to maturity, while the upper buds 
are not yet open. 
The fruit is of a clear, watery white color, generally 
spheroidal, and six to seven mm. in diameter when fresh. 
It dries to a brownish black color, the succulent pulp of the 
pericarp shrinking to a leathery consistence and somewhat 
reducing its size. The remains of the perianth segments 
are quite evident as little papery teeth at the “blossom end,” 
directly opposite the point of attachment to the stem. Here 
the remains of the tubular calyx and the stigma sometimes 
also persist, the fleshy receptacle forming a pericarp or 
pseudocarp, which is attached to the fruit proper only at 
the base. The fruit is sessile, like the flower. 
Fig. 1 (Plate xxxiii) represents the fruit in longitudinal 
section, and Fig. 2 a section of its walls in detail. 
The receptacular tube consists of a rather tough epidermis 
of a single layer of cells without intercellular spaces, but 
with a few stomata (Figs. 1 and 2, 1): beneath which lie 
several irregular layers of loose, rounded cells rich in gran- 
ular material (2), giving succulence to the fruit. Toward 
the interior these cells flatten somewhat and give place to 
large, irregular spaces (3), which in the younger stages 
bony 
