THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 21 



wood, properly manipulated, will yield approximately 1200 

 pounds of pulp ; and this with far less expenditure of chemicals, 

 labor, plant, and steam. The above objections practically 

 cover the production of pulp from the other possible materials 

 named :bagasse, cornstalks, cotton-seed hulls, and all other sub- 

 stances which have been offered as substitutes for pulp. 



TRICARPELLARY ASH-FRUITS 



By Charles E. Bessey. 



in OR some years I have noticed that certain green ash trees 

 (Fraximis pcnnsylvanica) in Lincoln regularly bear a 

 few tricarpellary fruits. Careful estimates show that three to 

 four per cent of the samaras of some 

 trees are tricarpellary instead, of bi- 

 carpellary as they should be normally. 

 The accompanying outline drawings 

 will show what these tricarpellary 

 fruits are like, especially the cross- 

 section of the wing position, shown be- 

 tween the samaras. Occasionally I 

 have found two seeds in these abnormal 

 samaras, but this is by no means common. Furthermore I 

 have observed that tricarpellary fruits occur only on trees with 

 long, narrow-winged samaras, and that they are never present 

 where the wings are short and broad. 



Probably this is a case of reversion, since it is certain that 

 in the ancestral line preceding the ashes not so^ very far, the 

 pistils had more than two carpels. It would be interesting to 

 plant these tricarpellary fruits and see whether there is any 

 tendency toward an increase in their numbers. 



