300 PITTONIA. 



usually aborting, so that the drupes are apt to be but three or 

 four to a pedicel. Apart from this peutagyny Osmaronia is 

 naturally not much better, as a genus, than a dioecious cherry, 

 or Cerasns. And this thought is emphasized in our mind 

 by the occurrence of tlie double-druped red cherry which I 

 have now recorded. The duplication or even further multi- 

 plication of pistils in Drupace?e is a phase perhaps peculiar 

 to those of Pacific North America, But I have to mention 

 now the same thin^f as occurring in even the Peach Tree, as 



j^ ..^ ^^^^^^^^^^ 



cultivated in California. Last April, while inspecting a young 

 peach orchard belonging to a friend, I noticed on one tree 

 a very great number newly set fruits numbering two, three, 

 and even four to the pedicel, showing that many a flower had 

 had just so many pistils. The young fruits at the time were 



of the size of large peas, and gave promise of attaining 



maturity, even where they were four to the flower. Being 

 much interested in this freak, I have made enquiry among 

 other peach growers about this matter, and am told that in 

 California it is no great rarity. One person informed me 

 that he had dug up and destroyed young peach trees other- 

 wise perfect, for the sole reason that, prodvicing their fruits 

 in pairs and threes to each flower, these in their maturity 

 were reduced in size and crowded out of shape by mutual 

 pressure, so as to be unfit for the market. 



Two queries now arise. Is this multiplication of pistils in 

 the peach peculiar to the Pacific Coast? And, if so, is it 

 another of that class of facts which our friends the evolu- 

 tionists press into service, as indicating that species, and even 

 genera, are created by soil, climate, or in one oft-repeated 

 word, "environment" ? 



