CHAPTER II 

 SPECIES OF POME-FRUITS 



There are about ninety genera in the Rose 

 family, of which ten or twelve bear pome- 

 fruits. Of the pome-bearing genera, but two 

 contain cultivated species of prime importance 

 in fruit-growing: namely, Pyr s, to which be- 

 long apples and pears; and Cydonia, the 

 quince. Three other genera are of lesser im- 

 portance: Mespilus, the medlar; Chsenomeles, 

 the Japanese quince; and Amelanchier, the 

 Juneberry. The fruits of Crataegus, the haw- 

 thorns or thorn-apples, allied to medlars in the 

 structure of the fruit, are edible, and several 

 species offer possibilities for domestication, but 

 none is cultivated in North America. 



THE GENUS PYRUS 



Authorities differ as to what groups of plants 

 should be included in Pyrus. Most of the 

 older botanists placed in the genus the apple, 

 pear, crab-apple, quince, medlar, sprbus, and 

 chokeberry. Some botanists still include all 

 of these fruits, but the modern tendency is to 

 segregate the groups in distinct genera some- 

 what in accordance with the common names, 

 as the differences which give distinctions suffi- 

 cient for a common name suffice also for a 

 botanical division. The pear and apple, how- 

 ever, are generally kept together in Pyrus; 

 but few botanists consider the differences in 

 the two fruits sufficiently marked to justify 

 putting them further apart than in two sections 

 of one genus. The distinguishing characters 

 of Pyrus are: 



Woody plants, trees or shrubs, with smooth or scaly 

 bark. Leaves simple, or sometimes lobed, alternate, 

 usually serrate, deciduous with deciduous stipules which 

 are free from the petiole. Flowers perfect, regular, 

 borne in compound terminal cymes ; torus urn-shaped, 

 adnate to the ovary and inclosing it with thick suc- 

 culent flesh at maturity ; calyx-lobes 5, acuminate and 

 reflexed, persistent in some and deciduous in other 

 species ; petals 5, white, pink or red, inserted on the 

 thickened border of the disk ; stamens 15-20, in three 

 rows ; styles 2-5 free 01 united below ; carpels 2-5, 

 inferior, crowned by the styles, usually 2-seeded. Fruit 

 an ovoid or pyriform poine ; seeds 2 in each cell, brown 

 or brownish, lustrous, mucilaginous on the outer surface. 



Pyrus contains fifty to sixty species widely 

 scattered throughout the north temperate zone, 

 the largest number in south-central and east- 

 ern Asia. In North America, Pyrus is repre- 

 sented by five species, while eight or nine 

 species inhabit Europe. Study of the species 

 makes plain that there are many natural 

 varieties. The two sections of Pyrus, given 

 the rank of genera by some authors, are dis- 

 tinguished as follows: 



1. Apples (Malus). Flowers pink, rose-color, red 

 or sometimes white, borne in fascicles or subumbellate 

 clusters on short spurs or lateral branchlets ; ovary 3-5- 

 celled ; styles more or less united at the base. Fruit 

 more or less globular with a distinct depression at both 

 ends, the flesh without grit cells, rounded at the base. 

 The species in this section number from 30-40, of which 

 not more than a half dozen are domesticated. 



2. Pears (Pyrus). Flowers white, few, borne in corymbs 

 on short spurs or lateral branchlets ; ovary 5-celled ; 

 styles usually free. Fruit usually pyriform, sometimes 

 subglobose, usually conical at the base, the flesh usually 

 bearing grit-cells when ripened on the tree. The 

 species number from 15-20 of which but two are truly 

 domesticated, but several others give promise of value 

 for stocks and possibly for their fruits. 



THE APPLE 



Of the thirty and more species of apples and 

 crab-apples, but two are prominent pomologi- 

 cal subjects, as all of the others remain wild 

 or are cultivated in a small way or as orna- 

 mentals. Among the ornamental species, how- 

 ever, are several bearing edible fruits, which, 

 though of small value now for the orchard, 

 may through selection or hybridization play 

 an important part in the pomology of the 

 future. But for the present, fruit-growers are 

 concerned with only P. Malus, from which 

 comes the common apple, and P. baccata, 

 parent of most cultivated crab-apples. Culti- 

 vated apples and crab-apples are easily dis- 

 tinguished in standard varieties by size, shape, 

 flesh, and flavor, to name the characters in 

 which differences are most apparent, but in 

 outlying varieties the two fruits merge into 

 each other so that clear botanical separation 

 rests on a difference in one structure, the calyx. 

 In the common apple the calyx persists on the 

 ripened fruit; in the true crab-apple, it falls 

 from ripe fruits. 



1. Pyrus Malus, Linn. Apple. Plant a large bush 

 or a tree attaining a height of 60-70 feet with a trunk 

 1-2 feet in diameter which .divides into stout spreading 

 branches forming a round open head ; bark separating 

 into large, thick, ashy-brown persistent scales ; branch- 

 lets and twigs glabrous or slightly pubescent, usually 

 bright red-brown and dotted with scattered, conspicuous 

 lenticels. Leaves oval, ovate or orbicular-ovate, usually 

 pointed at the apex, rounded or truncate at the base, 

 with serrate margins, dull in color, soft in texture, borne 

 on stout petioles. Flowers large, white, pink or red, 

 borne in close terminal cymose clusters on short pedicels ; 

 appearing with the leaves ; calyx-lobes 5, acuminate ; 

 petals 5, inserted, remotely contracted into narrow claws, 

 usually pink. Fruit exceedingly variable in size, shape 

 color, flavor and time of ripening, with a cavity about 

 the stem, the calyx persistent and set in a well-marked 

 basin ; flesh thick, succulent and homogeneous. Seeds 

 brownish, glossy, mucilaginous, usually two in each of 

 the 5 carpels forming the core. 



Between four and five thousand named 

 pomological varieties belong to this species, a 



