50G STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



then the stamens and pistils. The number of each of these is five or some 

 multiple of five. The outside circle of the flower consists in five little green 

 points of the calyx. Within thesje, and alternating with them, are five showy 

 petals coustitutiug the corolla. Within the corolla are twenty slender stamens 

 of unequal advancement. These, like the corolla, soon wither, but their dried 

 remains may often be found in the apex of the ripe fruit. They contain little 

 anthers at the top, full of a fine dust or powder, called pollen, which fertilizes 

 the parts which afterwards are to become seeds. In the center of the flower 

 are five slender objects united for nearly half their length above the apple. 

 These are called styles. The center flower of many clusters is supplied with 

 poor anthers, which furnish little or no pollen, or pollen apparently of poor 

 quality, so this flower, if it set, must be fertilized with pollen from another 

 flower. These center flowers are in the condition of some strawberries, like 

 the Green Prolific and Hovey, they have no good anthers. Pollen is trans- 

 ferred freely by insects and the wind. This oldest center flower, just spoken of, 

 is the one most likely to set. So far as I have noticed it seldom fails, unless 

 all the others of the cluster fail. To be sure two or three more of them often 

 become apples, or all of them in crab apples, but we very frequently get only 

 one apple from a cluster, and that is this one from the center flower, the one 

 so often provided with poor anthers. It gets the start of its fellows ; its vigor 

 is condensed in the pistil, as little of it is lost in stamens. 



A cross section of a young apple reveals five papery cells, each with young 

 seeds, near the axis of the apple. The normal number of seeds is ten, two for 

 each cell. In cultivated varieties they vary from none to twenty, or perhaps 

 more. The seeds of apples are attached at the smaller or pointed end. Near 

 this point is always to be found the radicle of the embryo within the seed 

 coats. They are known as anatro2)ous in structure. The outer smooth, hard 

 coat is called the testa, the inner is light colored and more delicate, and is 

 called the tefjmen. Outside of these five cells are seen, in all ripe apples, as 

 well as in the young, ten small green dots or woody bundles, five of them are 

 opposite the points of the cells, and five alternate with them. Cutting the 

 apple vertically they may be seen to run from the stem, curving out and 

 around the core, to terminate at the blossom. Five of these threads run from 

 the stem and terminate in the sepals at the top of the apple, and the other 

 five terminate in the petals. By a cross section five other green dots or woody 

 bundles may be seen opposite the outer points of each cell. These I have 

 traced to the five styles above the apple. Outside of these dots or threads is 

 most of the edible part of the apple, which is the thickened calyx. The bot- 

 anist understands the calyx, corolla, and stamens all to start at the top of an 

 apple stem, and grow together for a while around the pistil. 



We have seen it stated in the papers that there are over 3,000 varieties of 

 apples described. Whether the number be more or less it is very rapidly in- 

 creasing. It is quite a puzzle now to distinguish some of our varieties from 

 each other, or to recognize the same varieties when raised in different States. 



I have been looking over the flowers and seeds to see if there were any points 

 of value to aid in defining varieties. The subject is not a new one. Every 

 observing fruit-grower knows that some flowers have larger petals than others, 

 that some are white, others deeply colored. Many must have also noticed the 

 variations of seeds in number, size, color, shape, etc. Warder, in his Pomology, 

 makes some use of the character of the seeds in describing apples, and says, 

 " they are long or short, acuminate, or rounded, flat, angular, imperfect, plump, 



