THE POME-FRUITS 107 



similar that one cannot tell at a glance which of the two fruits 

 they may be. Some or all of the following characters distinguish 

 apples from pears : 



The trunk of the apple-tree is shorter and sturdier than that 

 of the pear, and the bark sheds in irregular scales or plates 

 detached at both ends, while the bark of an old pear-tree is 

 checked in squares which do not curl at the ends in shedding. 

 The leaves are usually very different but it is impossible to make 

 generalizations that will hold for all species and varieties of the 

 two fruits. The flowers of apples are red, pink, rose-color, and 

 sometimes white and borne in fasicles; those of the pear are 

 white and borne in corymbs. The ovary in the apple is three- 

 to five-celled; that of the pear, five-celled. The styles in the 

 apple flower are more or less united at the base; those of the 

 pear flower are usually free. The apple fruit is more or less 

 globular with a distinct depression at both ends; that of the 

 pear is usually pyriform, sometimes subglobose, and is more 

 often than otherwise conical at the base. The flesh of the apple 

 is without grit-cells; that of the pear has grit-cells, especially 

 when ripened on the tree. 



The Apple 



The true apple is the fruit of Pyrus Mains, but the name 

 apple is applied to thirty or more species if the crab-apple is in- 

 cluded. Apple is also a part of the name of many other edible 

 fruits, as may-apple and rose-apple. Of the thirty species of 

 Pyrus that properly pass as apples, only two are prominent 

 pomological subjects, as all of the others remain wild or are 

 cultivated in a small way for fruit or flower. The two species 

 with which fruit-growers are chiefly concerned are P. Mains, 

 from which comes most of the varieties of the common apple, 

 and P. haccata, parent of most of the very small cultivated crab- 

 apples. There are many hybrids of these two species under 

 cultivation of which the large-fruited crab-apples, as Hyslop, 

 Florence, and Excelsior are examples. 



156. The common apple and the crab-apple distinguished. — 

 The fruit-grower distinguishes between the common and crab- 

 apples by the size, shape, flesh, and flavor of the fruits, but there 

 are many hybrids and varieties in which it cannot always be told 



