THE FLOWER 



219 



constituting it are shown in Fig. 30. The margin of the cup 

 is made up of the sepals (r), from the base of which springs, 

 as shown on the left-hand side, a tongue-like projection 

 directed upwards, one of the petals. Inserted at the same 

 point is one of the many stamens with only a very short fila- 

 ment. Lower down are seen two lyre-like arms, which are 

 the styles of two of the pistils, 

 the lower portion of which is 

 cut into on the right-hand 

 side and exhibits the ovarian 

 cavity, in which the seeds 

 would later on be contained. 

 The outer portion of the section 

 up to the point / consists of 

 the hollowed axis or recep- 

 tacle, which during the ripen- 

 ing becomes succulent and 

 represents the edible portion 

 of the apple. We see, there- 

 fore, that the apple is really 

 the cortical tissue of a succu- 

 lent shoot. 



It is, therefore, not startling 

 to find that in some varieties 

 of pears the sweet and succu- 

 lent tissue extends some way 

 down the fruit-stalk. The 

 process of forming succulent 

 cortical tissue has only ex- 

 tended a little farther down- 

 wards in this case. 



We can now also under- 

 stand how in some cases pears are formed which have no 

 core : they are derived from flowers on which no pistil was 

 developed, but in which the axis followed the normal course 

 of development. 



In those cases in which the petals begin to elongate most 

 rapidly just before the flower opens, while the growth of the 

 calyx has been more rapid up to that period, the corolla 



b"iG. 30.— Young stage in the De- 

 velopment OP THE Flower of 

 THE Apple. 



