58 THE PEANUT— THE UNPREDICTABLE LEGUME 



acre without bearing a single yellow flower. Smith (66) has recently 

 written a review of the controversy which arose among botanists over 

 the manner in which peanuts produce their fruits, and the resulting mis- 

 conceptions which still persist. 



The first accurate description of the peanut flower was published by 

 Poiteau in 1806 (52). Nevertheless, in 1839, Bentham (10) stated that 

 peanuts possessed two kinds of flowers, one of the showy, yellow, flower 



PER CENT 

 100.0 OVULES PRODUCED 



93.3 EGGS FERTILIZED 



63.5 OVULES IN PEGS AND PODS 



21.4 OVULES IN ALL PODS 



13.5 OVULES IN MATURE PODS 



11.2 SEEDS, SOIL CALCIUM ADEQUATE 



7.1 SEEDS, SOIL CALCIUM DEFICIENT 



REPRODUCTIVE EFFICIENCY IN ARACHIS HYPOGAEA 



10 VIRGINIA JUMBO RUNNER PLANTS 

 5233 FLOWERS, 2 OVULES PER FLOWER 



Figure 17. The production of flower.s, pegs, pods, and seed in a Virginia peanut. 

 (after Smith, 67.) 



considered to be sterile ; the other, with neither calyx, corolla, nor sta- 

 mens, which produced the fruit. In other words, he not only did not see 

 the relationship between the flowers and the fruits, but he also thought 

 that the pegs were some kind of peculiar flower. Later Bentham was in- 

 volved in a controversy with a gentleman from Georgia named Neisler 

 (46) who correctly described the relationship of flowers, pegs, and ma- 

 ture fruits in 1855. Meanwhile, in 1853, Poiteau (53) had restated his 

 position of 1806. Although Bentham recognized his own error in 1856 

 (see Gray, 25) and corrected it (11), Didrichsen (22) in 1866, and 



