64 



SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY 



leaving: a. well-defined cavity. Rarely there is a tendency toward 

 such separation in the common apple and pear. 



97. Seeds. — The seeds are characteristic in all pome-fruits and 

 ou^ht to be used more g:enerally in identification and classifica- 

 tion. In apples and pears the normal number is two in each 

 cell or ten in all, but sometimes there are more, sometimes less, 



and a very few varieties 

 are seedless. AVhen the 

 number of seeds in a cell 

 is abnormal, one or more 

 than two in the apple and 

 pear, they are seldom 

 quite normal in shape. In 

 quinces there are several 

 or many seeds in each car- 

 pel. The seeds of all 

 these fruits vary in size, 

 shape, and color, and are 

 as constant and as reli- 

 able as marks of recogni- 

 tion as any other struc- 

 tures of pomes. No spe- 

 cial vocabulary is needed 

 in taking note of these 

 characters. Some seeds 

 are flat, others are plump. 

 The point of the seed may 

 be acute, obtuse or acumi- 

 nate. Sometimes seeds of apples, pears, or quinces have attached 

 to them a white spongy substance in which case they are said to 

 be tufted. The seeds of quinces are arranged in two rows; the 

 coat of a quince seed abounds in a mucilaginous gum not found 

 or not nearly as abundant in the apple or pear. 



98. Vascular bundles. — The united strands of conducting 

 tissue in plants are called vascular- or fihrovascular-hundles. 

 Ten of these bundles enter the flesh of pomes from the stem 

 and folloAv the core-line. These are plainly seen in crosswise 

 sections of apples and quinces as well-marked dots (Fig. 34). 

 They are arranged in two circles ; in the outer circle, the bundles 



Fig. 35. Lengthwise-section of quince 

 Compare with Fig. 33, showing a sim- 

 ilar section of an apple. 



