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Handbook of A ' ature-Studii 



ready to enter the smallest breach, and by their growth bring about decay. 

 Even the tip of a branch or twig swayed by the wind, may bruise an apple 

 and cause it to rot ; windfalls are always bruised and will not keep. Greater 

 care in packing, wrapping, picking and storing, so as to avoid contact with 

 other apples, is a paying investment of labor to the apple grower. 



The cavities at the stem and basin-ends of the fruit are also likely to 

 have, in the same variety, a likeness in their depth or shallowness, and thus 

 prove a help in identifying an apple. At the blossom, or basin, end of the 

 fruit may be seen five scales, which are all that remains of the calyx-lobes 

 which enclosed the blossom; and within them are the withered and 

 shrunken stamens and styles. 



When the fruit is cut, we see that the inner parts differ as much in the 

 different varieties as do the outer parts. Some have large cores, others 



L 



a, cavity; b, basin; c, calyx lobes; d, calyx tube with the withered stamens attached; 

 e, carpels; f, outer core-lines, terminating at a point where stamens are attached; g, 

 fibres extending from stem to basin. Transverse section of apple showing the five car- 

 pels and the ten outer core-lines. 



small. The carpels, or seed-cells, are five in number, and when the fruit is 

 cut across through the center these carpels show as a pretty, five-pointed 

 star; in them the seeds lie, all pointing toward the stem. Some apples 

 have both seeds and carpels smooth and shining, while in others they are 

 tufted with a soft, fuzzy outgrowth. The number of seeds in each cell 

 varies; the usual number is two. In case a carpel is empty, the apple is 

 often lopsided, and this signifies that the stigma of that ovary received no 

 pollen. The apple seed is oval, plump and pointed, with an outer shell, and 

 a delicate inner skin covering the white meat; this separates readily into 

 two parts, between which, at the point, may be seen the germ. The entire 

 core, with the pulp immediately surrounding the seed cells, is marked off 

 from the rest of the pulp by the core-lines, faint in some varieties but dis- 

 tinct in others. In our native crab-apples this separation is so complete 

 that, when the fruit is ripe, the core may be plucked out leaving a globular 

 cavity at the center of the apple. 



Extending from the stem to the basin, through the center of the apple, 

 is a bundle of fibers, five in number, each attached to the inner edge of a 



