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-hke 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- 
lification, but simply an extension of the axis. That 
the outer portion (so-called calyx-tube) of these 
fruits is really 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 
1 Moguin-Tandon, loc. cit., p. 386, &c.; see also Trécul, in the ‘ Bull. 
Soc. Bot. France,’ tom. i, p. 307. 
