THE FRUIT 59 



yellow, red, carmine, or more rarely scarlet. The over-color 

 may be laid on in stripes, splashes, streaks, as a wash over the 

 whole or a part of a fruit, or as a hhish on one cheek; or it 

 may mottle or marble the surface. In whatever way the color 

 is laid on it is usually necessary to add some adjective in de- 

 scribing it, as dull, dark, light, bright, clear, cloudy. When a 

 fruit is of two or more colors it is parti-colored; when of one 

 color, self-colored. The predominating color is usually stated 

 under the head of prevailing effect; thus, the Baldwin apple 

 usually shows more or less green but the prevailing effect is red ; 

 of the Bartlett pear, yellow. 



The bright colors of pomes are usually intensified by sunlight ; 

 they are seldom as brilliant on the tree as when full maturity 

 is reached in storage. It is a rule to which there are but few 

 exceptions that there is a tendency in all pome-fruits to redness 

 and that it comes into activity whenever a stimulus provokes 

 it. Some of these stimuli are bright sunlight, cold nights, lack 

 of nitrogen in the soil, injury to the tree, and various disease 

 and insect injuries. Fruit on young trees is seldom as brightly 

 colored as on old ones. Trees in sod bear highly colored fruits, 

 — the hectic flush of fruit from sick or starved trees. The 

 fruit from any two specimens of a variety is not necessarily 

 colored exactly the same, due to different environment, or, very 

 rarely, to a mutation. 



The reddish-brown or reddish-gray color called russet, very 

 common in both apples and pears, demands special attention. 

 The russet usually overlays a green ground-color and may 

 cover the whole fruit as in the russet apples and some pears, as 

 the Beurre Bosc ; or it may occur as patches, splashes, streaks, 

 lines, dots, veinings, or the fruit may be netted with russet. 

 The russet may be variously modified ; the modifying colors are 

 most often red, brown, and cinnamon. The quantity of russet 

 may vary greatly on the fruits of any one variety, usually in 

 accordance with climate. Thus any of the russet apples or pears 

 may in one season or locality be covered solidly with this color 

 and in another time or place show little or no russeting. The 

 skins of all fruits with little or much russet are more or less 

 roughened. Injury by frost, spraying or dusting may cause 

 russeting which is difficult to distinguish from the natural color. 



