THE FKUIT. 35 



return anything to tlie tree, but appropriates all to its own 

 • use ; and this is the reason, as we have before remarked, 

 that trees having borne a heavy crop of fruit one season 

 are unfruitful the next — this is the case only with fruits, 

 as the apple and pear, that require nearly the whole sea- 

 son to mature them. Cherries, and other fruits that 

 mature in a shorter period, and that draw more lightly on 

 the juices of the tree, do not produce this exhaustion, ^nd 

 consequently bear year after year uninterruptedly. 



2d. Classification. — In some fruits, as the apple for in- 

 stance, the fruit is formed helow or at the base of the 

 calyx, the segments of w^hich are still visible in the 

 mature fruit ; and often serves to some extent by its size 

 and other peculiarities, as being spread out, or closed to- 

 gether in a point, to identify varieties. In other species, 

 as the plunf and cherry, the fruit is formed witJim the 

 calyx, or on the top of it. Fruits of the former character 

 forming below the calyx and including it in their struc- 

 ture are classed as inferior — the ajyj^le^ pear^ quince^ 

 gooseberry.^ and currant are all inferior, having the calyx 

 adhering. 



Those formed within the calyx, having the pistil alone 

 connected with the ovary, are called superior ', such are the 

 peach., plum^ apricot., nectarine., clterry., raspberry., straw- 

 herry., and grap)e. 



The more natural, popular, and useful classification of 

 fruits, is that by which they are divided into 

 Pomes or Kernel Fruits., as the apple., pear., quince., med- 

 lar., etc. In speaking of these we call the pericarp 

 thej^csA, and the dry, bony seed capsules the core. 

 J)rup)es or Stone Fruits. — ^Those having a soft, pulpy 

 pericai^, and the seed enclosed in a shell like a nut, 

 as the peach., plum., apricot., cherry., etc. The peri- 

 carp of these is called the flesh., and the seed, the pit 

 or stone 



