Structure of the Apple. 21 



snow, like a cherry or a pear, but roseate. The upper- 

 most portion of the flower-stalk is deeply concave, the 

 sepals of the calyx springing from the margin, as do the 

 petals and the numerous stamens, while in the centre are 

 five slender pistils. The curious should note this care- 

 fully, since the apple, as regards structure, is one of the 

 most remarkable productions of nature. The rule in 

 plants is for the ripe fruit to consist only of the matured 

 ovary. In the apple the matured ovary is the smallest 

 portion of the fruit ! Soon after the petals drop, the 

 vase-like top of the peduncle becomes gradually dis- 

 tended with juicy tissue. By degrees it adjoins itself to 

 the pistils within. These at last become completely 

 embedded, and constitute the " core " French c<xur> the 

 heart. A horizontal section of a ripe apple shows plainly 

 where the adhesion took place, this being indicated by 

 green fibres. A ripe apple is thus, in truth, imperium in 

 imperio, a fruit within a fruit. Contemplated only in 

 maturity, it would seem to be one of the class technically 

 called " inferior," very numerous, and explained perhaps 

 on the same general principle that of the adhesion of 

 outward parts to inner ones. The charm about the apple 

 is that we can watch day by day how all progresses. The 

 lesson it gives is quite as salutary as pretty, since it is 

 only by studying and watching development, beginning 

 with infancy and youth, that we can ever properly com- 

 prehend conclusions and the perfect. The five cells of 

 the core contain (unless some of them fail) two brown 

 seeds or " pips " apiece, so that every apple is designed 



