CHAPTER XIV. 



TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING FRUITS. 



IT is only by a uniform and definite use of terms that descriptions 

 can be made intelligible to the reader. Hence a full explanation of 

 these terms becomes a matter of importance. Distinctive charac- 

 ters should be permanent, and not liable to variation with a change 

 of locality, soil, season, or climate ; or, if variable, the nature of 

 such variation should be distinctly pointed out. To assist the culti 

 vator the more fully to understand written descriptions, the devotion 

 of a few pages to a clear explanation of the terms used in this work, 

 may prove useful. 



I. GROWTH OF THE TREE, SHOOTS, AND LEAVES. 



The form of growth often affords a good distinctive character of 

 varieties, not liable to great variation. Young trees, only a few 

 years old, usually exhibit peculiarities of growth more conspicuously 

 than old trees of irregular spreading branches. Hence, in all cases, 

 where this character is mentioned, it refers to young trees not more 

 than three or four years from the bud or graft, unless otherwise 

 expressed. 



i. Shoots are ere ft, when they rise nearly perpendicularly from the 

 main trunk or stem, as in the Early Strawberry apple and Bartlett 

 pear (Fig. 192). 



Diverging, when they deviate from the perpendicular at an angle 

 of about forty-five degrees, considerable variation being found in 

 the same tree ; as in the Domine and Ribston Pippin (Fig. 193). 



Spreading, when they more nearly approach a horizontal direc- 

 tion, as in most trees of the Rhode Island Greening (Fig. 194). 



Drooping, when they fall below the horizontal, a form which many 

 spreading shoots assume, as they become the large branches of 

 older trees. 



Ascending, when they curve upwards, as in the Gravenstein apple, 

 and small Red Siberian Crab (Fig. 195). Erect trees usually par- 



