Notes on Fruit of Mountain Magnolia 



N. M. Grier 

 St. Louis, Mo. 



The writer's attention was called to a curiously misshapen fruit 

 cone from a mountain magnolia (Magnolia acuminata L.). Inves- 

 tigation showed that the original tree, as well as others in the 

 vicinity, bore a large quantity of similar ones. It will be remem- 

 bered that the fruit of this species superficially resembles some 

 of the larger, and more cylindrical pine cones, and is ordinarily 

 three or four inches in length. The abnormal fruits, for their part, 

 were lumpy in appearance, unsymmetrical in development, cork- 

 screw in shape, or otherwise twisted about their long axis, some 

 resembling the head of a bird in shape, and all shorter. 



With the view of ascertaining the probable cause of this abnormal 

 development, the writer made dissections of a number of cones. 

 No sign of insect injury, or parasitic growth was found, but on the 

 other hand, there was observed to be differences in the size of the 

 fleshy follicles composing them, accounted for by the size of the 

 seeds within them. The abnormal fruits contained numerous 

 ovules which had evidently never been fertilized, and the corre- 

 sponding portion of the cone showed signs of atrophy. The seeds in 

 this fruit are described as being distributed one or two in each 

 carpel; two seeds were noted, but in half of the cases examined, 

 •one had never developed. These cases were interesting since 

 there seemed to be plenty of opportunity for cross-pollination. 

 It was apparently clear then that the distortion of the fruits was 

 due primarily to want of complete pollination resulting in an 

 uneven distribution of maturing seeds throughout the cone. The 

 development of the seeds producing the mechanical force requisite. 



240 



