PLACENTA. 425 



scribed by tlie Rev. M. J. Berkeley in the * Gardeners* 

 Chronicle' for 1866, p. 1217, and appears to have been 

 an extension of the placenta : " On the first glance it 

 seemed as if an unsually large grape-stone had acci- 

 dentally fallen on the upper surface of the fruit, and 

 was attached by the narrow base. The process was, 

 however, five hnes long, and much narrowed below, 

 besides which, though it was pale green above, the 

 base was coral-red, like the tomato itself. It grew on 

 a narrow and shallow crack on the surface of the fruit, 

 and was found below to communicate directly with a 

 fibro-vascular bundle, which entered into the compo- 

 sition of a portion of the placenta. On making a 

 vertical section, instead of being succulent, as I ex- 

 pected, it was white and spongy within, with several 

 lacunae, and one or two irregular fibro-vascular bundles, 

 with highly developed spiral vessels threading the 

 centre. These vessels, moreover, were tinged with 

 brown, as in many cases of diseased tissues. There 

 was not the shghtest appeai'ance of placentae or any- 

 thing indicating an abortive fruit. On closer exami- 

 nation the cuticle was found to consist of thick-walled 

 cells, exactly like those of the tomato, while the spongy 

 mass consisted of a similar tissue to the fleshy portion 

 of the fruit, but with far less wrinkled walls, and more 

 indistinct intercellular spaces. The most striking 

 point, however, was the immense quantity of very 

 irregular and unequal starch-grains with which they 

 were gorged, which gave a peculiar sparkhng appear- 

 ance to them when seen en masse. I am inclined, to 

 regard the body rather as an abortive axis than an un- 

 developed fruit. In almost all, if not all, these cases 

 of abnormal growth, whether from leaves, petioles, fruit, 

 or other portions of the plant, we find an immediate 

 connection with one or more spiral vessels, which if 

 not existent at first are developed sooner or later. In 

 the present case the connection of the fibro-vascular 

 tissue of the fruit and abnormal growth was plain 

 enough, but whether it existed wlien the body was 



