THE FRUIT 53 



In determining the shape of a pome, the fruit should be cut 

 in exact halves longitudinally. The outline of a half fruit may 

 be round, ohlate, conical, ovate, ohlong, truncate, or combinations 

 of these and similar terms, definitions of which are not neces- 

 sary if the student will refer to the accompanying illustrations. 

 If a transverse section of an apple is made at its widest diameter, 

 the shape is elliptical if the sides are compressed; or ribbed, 

 angidar, oblique, or the sides may be unequal or symmetrical, 

 regidar or irregidar, — all self-explanatory terms. 



Besides these terms used in describing apples, additional de- 

 scriptive terms are necessary in classifying pears by reason of 

 the division into two parts, — the neck and the body. The neck 

 of a pear is the narrow portion in Avhich the stem is set; the 

 body is the swollen part crowned by the calyx. A pear is 

 pyriform when the curves formed by the neck and body are 

 concave; turbinate, or top-shaped, when the body is nearly round 

 with a short neck. The neck may be lo7ig or short, distinct or 

 obscure, obtuse or acute (Figs. 31, 32). 



The terms describing apples and pears are applicable to the 

 quince and medlar. Nurserymen commonly describe quinces as 

 ''apple-shaped" or ''pear-shaped," but these terms are not 

 sufficiently accurate. 



Simple outline drawings taken from both longitudinal and 

 transverse sections of pomes make a good record of the shape. 

 Such drawings are particularly desirable to accompany descrip- 

 tions of pears, the shapes of which are most useful in classifying 

 this fruit. 



86. The stems of pomes. — The stems of apples and pears are 

 much used in identification. They vary but little in any variety, 

 although as a rule they are shorter in large fruits than in small 

 ones. It should be known from what part of the flower-cluster 

 a fruit has developed in taking note of stems; for the nearer 

 the flower to the center of the umbel in the apple and the tip 

 of the raceme in the pear, the shorter the stem and the larger 

 the fruit. 



The stems of apples and pears may be long and slender, as 

 in the Rome Beauty apple and Beurre Bosc pear; short and 

 thick, as in the Sutton Beauty and Comice pear ; fleshy, as in the 

 Peck Pleasant and Louise Bonne pear; clubbed when enlarged 



