DESCRIBING POME FRUITS 53 



The core may be large or small, and may 

 be open or closed. Dr. Warder, in his descrip- 

 tions, speaks of cores as "clasping" or as 

 " meeting the eye" depending- on their relation 

 to the sunken tube of the calyx ; but the 

 writer has been unable to make any practical 

 use of this distinction in fruit descriptions. 



The flavor of an apple is one of the quali- 

 ties by which an experienced pomologist most 

 readily recognizes a variety, but here again 

 he has extreme difficulty to render his expert 

 judgment in intelligible words. For the most 

 part, apples are either sour or sweet, and pears 

 are sweet in various degrees. However, most 

 sour apples are not really very sour, but are 

 more accurately described by the term sub- 

 acid. The range of flavor would then run 

 something like this : sour, subacid, mild sub- 

 acid, flat, slightly sweet, sweet. In some varie- 

 ties there is a certain aromatic quality to the 

 fruit which is very agreeable, interesting, and 

 characteristic. This is very hard to describe, 

 also, but should be mentioned under the gen- 

 eral head of flavor. It should be noted that 

 flavor is not a matter of personal judgment. 

 All men ought to agree as to whether a cer- 

 tain fruit is sour, subacid, or sweet. It is not 



