508 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



teentbs of an iuch, and nearly orbicular. It is also cordate at the base, very 

 different from the first two, and different from most petals of other varieties 

 examined. These three examples are from the first three varieties of apples 

 examined. They grew within two rods of each other. I examiaed large num- 

 bers of petals of each variety. They were quite uniform in appearance. Of 

 the flowers of the Astrachan and Tallman Sweet I examined those on several 

 trees. 



No. 4 shows, on the same scale, a petal of the Sweet Bough, seventeen-six- 

 teenths by fourteen-sixteenths of an inch. It is broadly ovate or elliptical 

 ovate, with a stem or claw longer than that of either of the other numbers. 

 Certainly the botanist is often glad to find as good points as these petals show 

 to help separate species and varieties of plants. I might add others, but these 

 will answer ray present purpose. 



In the center of the flower above the apple I mentioned five small green 

 slender objects called styles. On the Eed Astrachans the styles are seven- 

 twelfths of an inch long, united for one-third to two-fifths of an inch, 

 and then diverging. They are slightly pulescent under the microscope where 

 they all begin to separate. Above and below this point they are smooth. In 

 the Tallman Sweet, the second variety of flowers examined, the styles are five- 

 sixteenths of an inch long, on good fair sized flowers. They are united in one 

 small column for half the length, then appear larger. The upper half of the 

 five styles appear closely covered and bound together by a dense wooly substance, 

 nnlike the styles of any other variety examined. In the flowers of the Jersey 

 Sweet the styles are short and stout. They are fully twice the diameter of 

 healthy styles of the Seek-no-further. 



I leave you thus abruptly in the centre of an apple blossom, — a delightful 

 retreat for "fairies, a place surrounded with delicate colors and perfumed with 

 nectar, — a place full of promise of a rich autumn harvest. 



