WILD FRUITS OF FARM 



FIG. 4. Diagrams of 



apex of the apple, closed pome fruit, (a), and 



stone fruit, (&). 



varieties, the best of which offer proper 



materials for selection. 



Wild fruits, like the cultivated, fall chiefly 



in three categories: core fruits (pomes), 



stone fruits (drupes), and berries. The 



structural differences between pome and 



drupe are indicated in the accompanying 



diagram. The apple is the typical core 



fruit (pomus = apple ; whence, pomology). 



The seeds are contained in five hardened 



capsules (ripened carpels), together forming 



the core, surrounded by the pulp or flesh of 



the apple, which is mostly developed from 



the base of the calyx. The calyx lobes 



persist at the 



together above the withered stamens and 



style tips. The plum is a typical stone fruit: the single 



seed is enclosed in a stony covering that occupies the 



center of the fruit and is surrounded by the pulp. The 



term berry is used to cover a number of structural types 



which agree in little else than that they are small fruits with 



a number of scattered seeds embedded in the pulp. 



If, with the coming of improved varieties of cultivated 



fruits, the wild ones have ceased to be of much importance in 



our diet, they still are of importance to us as food for our 



servants, the birds. The birds like them. Nothing will do 



more to attract and retain a good population of useful birds, 



than a plentiful supply of wild 

 fruits through the summer 

 season. Who that has seen 

 orioles pecking wild straw- 



ttC^/ //> / berries or robins gormandizing 



on buffalo-berries or waxwings 



PIG. 5. Wild chokecherry (Prunussp?) ^4.'^ , .*4.~:~ ,VU 



and nannyberry (Viburnum lentago). Stripping a mountain aSH, Can 



