368 MULTIPLICATION. 
ceous condition of the carpel, in which the margins 
are disunited. In such cases the ovules may occupy 
the margin or may be placeda short distance within it, 
as in the case of some open carpels of Ranuneulus 
Ficaria,' and in which two ovules were borne in shallow 
depressions on the upper or inner surface of the open 
carpel and supplied with vascular cords from the cen- 
tral bundle or midrib. The outer coating of the ovule 
here contained barred or spiral fusiform vessels derived 
from the source just indicated. 
In the very common cases where the pistil of Tyi- 
folium vepens becomes foliaceous (see Frondescence), 
the outer ovules are generally two or more instead of 
being solitary. So, also, in the Rose with polliniferous 
ovules (see p. 274). Among Umbellifere affected with 
frondescence of the pistil a similar increase in the 
number of ovules takes place. It will be borne in 
mind that in most, if not all, these cases the structure 
of the oyule is itself imperfect.” 
What are called in popular parlance double almonds 
or double nuts (Corylus) are cases where two seeds are 
developed in place of one. 
In the ‘ Revue Horticole,’ 1867, p. 582, mention is 
made of a bush which produces these double nuts each 
year—in fact, it never produces any single-seeded fruit. 
The plant was a chance seedling, perhaps itself the 
offspring of a double-seeded parent. It would be inter- 
esting to observe if the character be retained by the 
original plant, and whether it can be perpetuated by 
seed or by grafting. 
It is necessary to distinguish in the case of the nut 
between additional seeds or ovules, as just described, 
and the double, triple, or fourfold nuts that are occa- 
sionally met with, and which are the result either of 
actual multiplication of the carpels or of the contimued 
development of some of the carpels which, under ordi- 
1 Seemann’s ‘ Journal of Botany,’ 1867, vol. v, p. 158. 
2 Cramer, ‘ Bildungsabweich,’ p. 66, Astrantia major, Eryngium, to 
which may be added Daucus, Heraclewm, Ke. 
