38 SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY 



boys in school and studied geography we 

 learned that the earth is an oblate sphere, 

 " slightly flattened at the poles." The oblate 

 apple is much more definitely flattened at the 

 poles. Oblate apples are sometimes said to be 

 flat, but this term may be better reserved for 

 such specimens as are very strikingly flat- 

 tened. An apple is said to be conic when it 

 tapers more or less toward the eye, or calyx, 

 end. Combinations of these adjectives are 

 often convenient, such as oblate-conic, round- 

 oblate, round-conic, etc. 



All these terms consider the fruit as it 

 appears in its vertical section. If the fruit is 

 cut exactly in halves, right through the stem 

 and along the axis of the core, it becomes 

 easier to determine whether it is round, 

 oblate, or conic. But there are some other 

 points to be determined from this section. It 

 not infrequently happens that, when a section 

 is made in this way, the two sides of the 

 appple are unequal. One "half" is larger 

 than the other. The descriptive term applied 

 to this form is the one already mentioned 

 unequal. Occasionally a fruit will be found 

 which is oblique or lopsided. It is oblique if, 

 when lying flat on the base, the axis of the 



