PLACENTA. 4.95 
scribed by the 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 ines long, and much narrowed below, 
besides which, though it was pale green above, the 
base was coral-red, hke 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 
lacunee, 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 appearance of placentz 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 sparkling 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 when the body was 
