In grapes a similar condition may occasionally be met with in which the terminal pedicels become greatly swollen and fused into a solid mass. It would seem probable that this change is due to insect puncture, or to the effect of fungus growth at an early stage of development, but as to this point there is at present no evidence.[489]
Fig. 203.—Monstrous pear, showing extension and ramification of the succulent floral axis. The bases of the sepals are also succulent.
In the apple a dilatation of the flower-stalk below the ordinary fruit may occasionally be observed, thus giving rise to the appearance of two fruits superposed and separated one from the other by a constriction. (See fig. 176, p. 327.) The lower swelling is entirely axial in these cases, as no trace of carpels is to be seen. M. Carrière[490] mentions an instance wherein from the base of one apple projected a second smaller one, destitute of carpels, but surmounted by calyx-lobes as usual. The direction of this supernumerary apple was the exact opposite of that of the primary fruit.
Fig. 204.—Monstrous pear, showing extension and swelling of axis, &c.
In pears, quinces, and apples, a not uncommon deviation is one in which the axis is prolonged beyond the ordinary fruit, like which it is much swollen. Occasionally the axis is not only prolonged, but even ramifies, the branches partaking of the succulent character of the ordinary pome. Such instances are frequently classed under the head of prolification, but they have in general no claim to be considered in this light, for the reasons already given in the chapter relating to that subject. (See p. 135.)[491]