102 G. R. Wieland — Accelerated Cone Growth in Pin us. 



Art. X. — Accelerated 



Cone Growth in 

 Wieland. 



Finns • by G. R. 



The rare but suggestive instance of multiseriate production 

 of ovulate cones in Pinus rigida, illustrated in the accom- 

 panying figure, has been recently brought to my notice by one 

 of my colleagues.* This conspicuous group of cones appears 

 to have been derived from some New England source many 

 years ago, having been found with a series of geological speci- 

 mens collected or left in the Peabod} 7 Museum by Professor 

 Benjamin Silliman and 

 probably not examined 

 since his day. 



As appears in the fig- 

 ure, the individual cones, 

 of which there are fifty- 

 three in all, are nearly 

 all of normal or approxi- 

 mately normal develop- 

 ment and so regularly 

 crowded together on 

 their common axis as to 

 simulate, taken en masse, 

 some such single huge 

 cone as that of Pinus 

 Coulteri. It is clear 

 enough, however, that 

 the entire growth of 

 cones is not in an} 7 com- 

 plete sense an abnormal- 

 ity ; for each cone must 

 appear normally in the 

 axil of a bract, just as do 

 the several up to half a 

 dozen cones in the usual 

 ovulate clusters [or 

 whorls], and exactly as 

 in the case of the far 

 more numerous cones of 

 the corresponding stami- 

 nate groups. 



* At the time this note was first written it seemed to me that its interest 

 was somewhat lessened by the fact that after diligent search and inquiry I 

 failed to learn of additional examples of clustered Pinus cones. Since then, 

 however, I have seen three large and even finer clusters in the collections of 

 the Jarclin cles Plantes, Paris. No label accompanied these specimens, 

 which represent at least two more species of Pinus exhibiting accelerated 

 cone growth. 



