CLASSIFICATION OF APPLES. Xlll 



1. The Stamens. I have already stated that these occupy three 

 different positions in the tube, and 1 have adopted them as the primary 

 divisions of this system, having found by experience that they are on 

 the whole the most reliable characters where all are more or less 

 changeable. The marginal position is shown in Figs. 1, 2 ^, 3, and 

 4 a ; the median in Fiys. 5 a, G a, and 7 ; and the basal in Figs. 8 a 

 and 9 a. 



2. The Tube. The tube is of two distinct forms the conical and 

 the funnel-shaped and these are more or less modified in shape, as will 

 be seen on reference to the various diagrams. The outlines of the 

 conical tube, as shown in Fujs. 1, 2, 6, and 9, proceed from the base 

 of the sepals in a curved line downwards towards the core, forming an 

 inverted cone. These curves are generally inwards, but occasionally 

 they are outwards, as in Fig. 1, which has suggested to me the forma- 

 tion of another division under the name of urn-shaped ; but it occurs 

 so seldom that no importance need be attached to it. The lines of 

 the funnel-shaped tube proceed, like those of the conical, from the 

 base of the sepals, curving outwards in the same downward direction, 

 and then, curving inwards, form a hump or shoulder which is higher or 

 lower than the middle of the tube ; and this has the appearance of a 

 funnel shape, as is shown in Figs. 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8. 



3. The ( 'arpelx. These constitute what is popularly called the core 

 of the apple. They are generally five, occasionally they are four, 

 and I have seen only three, but this is very rarely met with. These 

 carpels or seed-cells vary in shape. If one is split down the middle 

 its walls or membranous lining will be either round, as represented in 

 Fig. 2 b ; ovate, as in Fly. 6 b ; obovate, as in Fiy. 96; or elliptical, 

 as in Fin. 4 b. Then in relation to the axis of the fruit, they are 

 either axile or abaxile. When the walls extend to the axis, and these 

 characters will be best seen by making a transverse section of the fruit, 

 the cells are symmetrical, as shown in Figs. 10 and 11, and then they 

 are said to be axile, whether they are open, as in Fig. 11, or closed, as 

 in Fig. 10. When they are distant from the axis, and the cells are 

 unsymmetrical, as shown in Fig. 12, they are called abaxile. 



4. The Sepals or Eye. These are a portion of the remains of the 

 flower, which in their original form, when accompanied by the corolla, 

 were uniformly expanded and spreading. After the petals drop, and 

 as the fruit develops, they gradually assume various directions, and 

 when it is perfectly matured we find them in four distinct forms. 

 The first of these is shown in Fig. 13, where the segments are quite 

 reflexed, frequently so much as to fall back flat on the fruit in tha 



