Terms used in Describing Fruits. 173 



Ovate, as in the Marie Louise.* 



CHERRIES may be round, cordate or heart-shaped, or ovate. 



STONE FRUITS usually have a furrow on one side, extending from 

 the stalk to the apex, termed a suture (literally meaning a seam), 

 which sometimes occurs on both sides. It is large, when wide and 

 deep; distinft, when clear or well denned; obscure, when faint; 

 obsolete, when not existing, or only a faint line on the surface. 



COLOR OF FRUIT. The lightest colored fruit is white, as the 

 Snow peach ; next, yellowish white ; pale yellow ; yellow ; and deep 

 yellow. The addition of red produces successively, orange yellow, 

 orange, orange red, rich warm red. Shades of red, clear red, crim- 

 son when darkened, purple when blue is added, violet, less blue than 

 in purple. Amber is a very light yellowish-brown. Fawn color is a 

 light reddish-brown, with a slight admixture of grey. 



A fruit is striped, when in alternating broad lines of color. 



Streaked, when the lines are long and narrow. 



Marbled, when the stripes are wide, faint, irregular, or waving. 



Blotched, of different abrupt shades, without any order or regu- 

 larity. 



Clouded, when the blotches are broader and more softly shaded. 



Stained, having the lighter shades of a blotched or clouded apple. 



Splashed, when the stripes are much broken and of all sizes. 



Mottled, covered with nearly confluent dots. 



Dotted, when these dots are more distinct. 



Spotted, when the dots become larger. 



TEXTURE OF FRUIT. Hard, those which need the artificial aid 

 of cooking to soften them sufficiently, as the Catillac pear. 



Breaking, when tenderer than the preceding, but not yielding to 

 the simple pressure of the mouth, as the Summer Bonchretien. 



Buttery, when the flesh forms a soft mass, yielding to the pressure 

 of the mouth, as in the White Doyennd and Seckel pears. 



Melting, when the flesh becomes nearly or entirely liquid by this 

 pressure, as in the Madeleine. These qualities may be combined, 

 as breaking and melting, in the Washington ; breaking and buttery, 

 in the Onondaga ; buttery and melting, in the Tyson, and in most 

 of the best varieties of the pear. 



The texture may be fine, granular, coarse, gritty, fibrous, tough, 

 crisp, or tender. 



* Cultivation influences considerably the form of pears. Thus, on a young thrifty tree, 

 the Seckel pear has a slight neck ; on an old heavily laden tree, the neck is obsolete. The 

 body, when ovate or slightly conical on young trees, becomes rounded on older trees, and 

 even flattened in rare instances. 



