79 



more evident after our return to the growing plants and further 

 obser\^ations upon their pecuhar habits, the origin of which must 

 be left as a long-enduring stimulus for a special study of heredity 

 by our relatives in South America or Africa or both. There is 

 nothing quite equal to being among the nearest relatives when 

 studying lines of descent especially of peanut pods. 



But to return, the field peanut plant is now producing blooms 

 in the axils of the leaves and soon purplish blunt-pointed pro- 

 jections appear and quickly turning a sharp angle extend toward 

 the earth. The end of this wooden-toothpick like structure 

 scarcely reveals its meaning until the earth is reached, when it 

 begins those changes that result in the fruit of the plant. Should 

 the distance exceed a few inches the descending flower-stalks 

 give up the quest and perish, but when the leafy flower-bearing 

 stems are bent down and fastened to the earth, they will form 

 usually two fruits at each node as shown in the accompanying 

 figure so long as strength for it holds out. 



The young fruit is quite pointed at its free end thus accommo- 

 dating its entrance into the soil, and this shape is not fully out- 

 grown. The size and form of the seeds are adjusted to those of 

 the legume so that in a pod with two seeds for example, the basal 

 one is easily distinguished by its being shorter, broader and of 

 greater weight than the one at the tip. Practically the opposite 

 results obtain with the seeds of soybeans that are being studied 

 with peanuts, because the prevailing numbers of seeds to a pod 

 are the same. It seems quite probable that the differing envir- 

 onment may reverse the whole sequence of viability of the seed 

 and the vigor and variability of the plants therefrom. In other 

 words, if the peanut could be induced to change its habit of 

 thrusting its ovaries into the soil the legumes might be largest 

 at the free end, and have its smallest and weakest seeds at the 

 base. But if one was permitted to indulge in ifs, there would be 

 no end of speculations with a name that is built upon such 

 unusual lines as the peanut, for Arachis (meaning without a 

 branch, when it has many of them) and hypogaea (that relates to 

 the habit of subterranean seed production) are scarcely descriptive. 

 When one picks his peanut fruits, he does it with a plow or may 



