From the May 10, 1930, issue
By Science News
CANNON-BALL TREE
The strange growth represented on the cover of this issue of the SCIENCE NEWS-LETTER is not a freak grapefruit tree. It is the normal method of flowering and fruiting of the cannon-ball tree, a member of the monkey-pot family found in the forests of South America. Its fruiting branches always grow out of the lower part of the tree–a scheme that might well have been adopted by other trees that burden themselves with heavy fruits. The big round balls, looking very much like ammunition for old-fashioned smoothbore ordnance, are filled with inedible, fibrous pulp in which the seeds are embedded. The specimen shown in our picture is on exhibition at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. It was collected by the Stanley Field Guiana Expedition.