1 170 Home Nature-Study Course. 



(16). Is the core exactly in the center of the apple, or nearest to the 

 stem or to the blossom-end of the fruit? Are all apples alike in this 

 particular? Is it an assistance in naming a variety? 



(17). What do you think of the value of the apple as food? Does it 

 keep you from getting hungry to eat an apple lunch? 



Facts for teachers. — The shape of any particular variety of apple should be 

 carefully noted, for although no two apples ever were exactly alike, any more 

 than any two leaves or two blades of grass, yet the shapes are often very charac- 

 teristic. The big. round Baldwin, the slightly flattened Wagener, the long, oval 

 or conic shape of the Gillifiower or Sheepnose, have their own peculiar traits. 

 Just so with the color markings on the skin and the color and texture of the flesh. 

 Every farm boy or girl knows the Rhode Island Greening, with its fine-grained, 

 yellowish meat glowing through its green coat; the freckled, spicy Seek-no-further; 

 or the Tompkins County King with its rather coarse-grained but fragrant, delicious 

 pulp, and its oily coat with carmine stripes and splashes laid on a ground of gold. 

 The Lowell is still more oily to the touch, being nicknamed the " Tallow or Greasy 

 Pippin." Some have tough skins, others bruise readily even with careful handling; 

 some, as the Mcintosh, have a soft bloom which rubs off; some are rough to sight 

 and touch, as the Russets. But to all kinds the skin is an armor against those 

 tiny foes, the fungus spores, myriads of which are floating in the air ready to 

 enter the smallest breach in their defenses, and by their growth make what the 

 children call " rot-spots." A tap from a neighboring twig or branch, swayed 

 by the wind, may bruise the fruit and cause decay to begin while the apple is 

 still on the tree. " Windfalls " are always bruised and will not keep. Greater 

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

 apples as much as possible is a paying investment of labor, especially in the " off 

 years " of the apple crop. And this fruit is so nutritious, so easy of digestion, 

 so altogether wholesome, that if people used it in much larger quantities both 

 consumer and grower would reap a benefit. 



The cavities at the stem and the basins at the blossom-ends of the fruit are also 

 very likely to have in the same variety a likeness in their depth or shallowness 

 and thus help to identify the kind of apple. The lobes of the outer green cover- 

 ing of a flower-bud are called calyx lobes. In the apple these remain and may 

 be seen in the basin of the fruit; they appear as five withered points, giving the 

 name blossom-end of the apple; in some varieties these points are spread apart, 

 in others closed, in others partly open. Remnants of the stamens of the flower, 

 too, may often be seen clinging like withered little brown threads to the sides 

 of the calyx tube just below the calyx points, and often remnants of the styles 

 can be seen at the center. 



When the fruit is cut it is seen that the inner parts differ as much in the dif- 

 ferent varieties as do the outer parts. Some kinds have large cores, others small, 

 and the carpels may be open or closed at the inner seam. These carpels or seed- 

 cells are five in number and when cut across through the center of the fruit form 

 a beautiful five-pointed star. In these the seeds lie, all pointing toward the stem. 

 Sometimes both seeds and carpels are smooth and shining, but in some varieties 

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

 varies; there are usually two, but sometimes as many as five, and sometimes the 

 cells are empty. In case a carpel is empty it often makes the apple lopsided. The 



