140 SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY 



classed with the plums. It may be called 

 by either name with equal propriety. 



Recently the plum has been successfully 

 hybridized with the apricot and with the 

 cherry. The resulting fruit is half plum and 

 half apricot, and can not be conveniently 

 classed with either. Mr. Burbank has called 

 it a plumcot. The cross between the plum 

 and the cherry has not been named. 



The writer has several times seen fruits 

 which were thought to be hybrids between the 

 apple and the pear. They partook of the 

 characters of both fruits. Whether such 

 specimens could be called pears or apples 

 would be a knotty question. About the best 

 thing that can be done in such cases is to 

 rely on the arbitrary definitions of our com- 

 mon language. 



When we study all these common classes 

 of fruit at large, we find that there are some 

 striking natural relationships among them. 

 The apple, the pear, and the quince, for in- 

 stance, are much alike ; so are the plum, the 

 peach, and the apricot ; and so are the 

 orange, the lemon, the pomelo, and the kum- 

 quat. The three groups here exemplified 

 are very generally known as the pome fruits, 



