PROLIFICATION OF THE FRUIT. 135 



Moquin has given an explanation of the St. Valery 

 Apples, wherein the petals are sepaloid, the stamens 

 absent, and where there is a double row of carpels, 

 by supposing these peculiarities to be due to " a 

 prolification combined with penetration and fusion 

 of two or more flowers," but it is surely more rea- 

 sonable to conceive a second row of carpels placed 

 above the first by the prolongation of the central 

 part of the axis. Supposing this view to be correct, 

 the inner calyx-like whorl might be considered either 

 as a repetition of the calycine whorl, or it might be 

 inferred that the corolla was present in the guise of 

 a second calyx. 



Moquin-Tandon suggests another explanation 

 namely, that though the stamens are absent in these 

 curious flowers, at least in their ordinary shape, they 

 are represented by the lower row of carpels, which 

 become, in process of development, fused with the 

 upper or true carpels. If this were so, surely some 

 intermediate conditions between stamen and carpel 

 would occasionally be present ; but such does not 

 appear to be the case.^ 



In some of the instances of so-called proliferous 

 pears the carpels would seem to be entirely absent, 

 and the dilated portion of the axis to be alone 

 repeated. Thus, the axis dilates to form the lower 

 fruit without any true carpels being produced, but at 

 its summit a whorl of leaves (sepals) is formed; 

 above these another swelling of the axis takes place 

 also without the formation of carpels, and this, it 

 may be, is terminated in its turn by a branch pro- 

 ducing leaves. In these cases there is no true pro- 

 Hfication, but simply an extension of the axis. That 

 the outer portion (so-called calyx-tube) of these 

 fruits is reaUy an axile product there can now be 

 little doubt; and, as if to show their axile nature, 

 they occasionally produce leaves from their sides, as 



' Moquin-Tandon, loc. cit., p. 386, &c. ; see also Tr^ul, in the ' Bull. 

 Soo. Bot. France,' torn, i, p. 307. 



