MORPHOLOGY, GENETICS AND BREEDING 51 



composed of ten filaments, eight of which are normally anther bearing. 

 The filaments are fused through one-half to two-thirds of their lengths. 

 The stamens occur in two series, four bearing oblong, adnate, introrse 

 anthers which alternate with four filaments bearing globose, dorsifixed 

 anthers. Three of the oblong anthers are biloculate ; the fourth, adjacent 

 to the sterile filaments, is usually uniloculate. The four globose anthers 

 are uniloculate. In bud stages the filaments bearing the oblong anthers 

 exceed the others. The staminal column lies horizontally to the hypan- 

 thium. At the point of separation the free ends of the filaments are sharply 

 reflexed toward the standard, forming acute angles with their fused 

 bases. The pistil consists of a single, sessile carpel (Smith, 66), 1.5 mm. 

 long and 0.5 mm. in basal diameter, surmounted obliquely by the long 

 filiform style which extends through the hypanthium, bends sharply 

 through the staminal column, bends sharply again with the reflexed fila- 

 ments, and ends in a club-shaped stigma above the anthers. Near its sum- 

 mit on the surface facing the standard, the style is clothed with upward 

 slanting hairs. 



Twenty-four hours before anthesis the flower bud is 6 to 10 mm. 

 long (Smith, 66). During the day elongation of the bud proceeds slowly 

 but when night falls elongation accelerates. At the time of anthesis, near 

 sunrise the following day, the flowers may be from 50-70 mm. long. The 

 oblong anthers dehisce just before, sometimes after petal expansion. The 

 globose anthers dehisce subsequent to further elongation of their filar 

 ments, which eventually equal or exceed those of the oblong group 

 (Badami, 3; Smith, 66). 



Peanut flowers which are fresh and turgid at sunrise are usually 

 wilted by midday, although they last longer in cool weafher. On the day 

 after flowering all the flower parts except the small, sessile ovary have 

 withered, as Didrichsen (22) clearly demonstrated in 1866. The hy- 

 panthium soon abscisses leaving a circular scar at the base of the ovary. 

 The old flower parts sometimes adhere to the tip of the ovary during early 

 peg growth. 



C ^^'^ J 



The p e g is the most distin ctive featureof the peanut plant, for it is 

 by means of this structure that the aerial -flowers come to mature„their 

 fruits underground (figure 15). The peg has been variously described as 

 an apetalous flower or more recently as a gynophorg, a stalk upon which 

 the ovary rests^JThe various interpretations and terms applied to this 

 structure have been reviewed by Smith (66). He has defined the peg as 



