Hyperon Production in $e^+ e^-$ Interactions in the $\Upsilon$ Region

We report measurements from CLEO detector of the rate of ..xi.. and ..lambda.. production in e/sup +/e/sup -/ interactions in the upsilon region. Hyperon production from the decay of the UPSILON(1S) is compared with continuum e/sup +/e/sup -/ data. The ratio of the production rates of ..lambda.. (and Lambda-bar) to K/sup 0/ (and K-bar /sup 0/) on the UPSILON(1S) is 0.21 +- 0.03, much larger than in the continuum, 0.07 +- 0.01. The ratios of the production rates of the ..xi.. and the ..lambda.. are comparable, 0.10 +- 0.02 (UPSILON(1S)) and 0.07 +- 0.02 (continuum). We discuss some implications of the data for gluon and quark fragmentation models.