CHAPTER XX 

 ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED FRUITS ^ 



The apple • The pear • The plum • The sour cherry • The peach • The 



apricot • The orange and the lemon • The banana • The pineapple • The 



grape • The strawberry • The raspberry • The blackberry • The melon . 



Miscellaneous fruits 



The list of fruits is an exceedingly long one. What we popu- 

 larly call a fruit is, in general, not the seed, but rather the fleshy 

 developed parts about the seed or seeds. For example, in the 

 apple the whole pericarp or seed envelope takes on an extreme 

 development, entirely and somewhat uniformly surrounding the 

 seed capsules with a juicy fleshy growth. In the strawberry it 

 is the receptacle on which the mass of seeds is attached that 

 develops into the edible part. In the raspberry each individual 

 seed is surrounded by a juicy growth similar to that of the peach, 

 while the receptacle is left behind as the fruit leaves it, like a 

 cap comes off the head. In the blackberry each seed develops 

 its fleshy envelope, like the raspberry, but the receptacle comes 

 off with the fruit, as in the strawberry. 



The apple {Malus malus). This best of all the fruits has 

 been long in cultivation, specimens of several varieties having 

 been found in the remains of the lake dwellers, previous to the 

 bronze age. These were small fruits, however, measuring only 

 from an inch to an inch and a quarter in diameter and undoubt- 

 edly gathered from the wild. The fruit has therefore improved 

 somewhat since these days, certainly in size and most likely in 

 flavor as well. 



The apple was cultivated by the Greeks under the name of 

 melon and by the I^atins as malus, clearly the same name ; but 



1 See " Principles of Hreeding," chapter on Mutation ; also " Evolution of 

 our Native Fruits," by Bailey. 



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